by M. D. Cooper
The woman coughed and then groaned, pushing her head back against the wall. “We got a last-minute shipment for this system. Was a good commission. Then we spotted a deal for a week here at Killashandra, and decided it was time to get a bit of R&R.”
Cargo shook his head and walked around the table to take a look at the other two officers. “Sounds like you were set up to set us up.”
Hunter nodded, apparently out of words for the time being.
Satisfied that Hunter’s three officers, and the massive woman—Jenny if he recalled Hunter’s yell earlier—were all out cold, he walked to the captain’s side and pulled the pool table back a few centimeters.
“C’mon out,” he said, waving her forward with the gun.
“What’re you going to do now?” Captain Hunter asked.
“Wait for Trevor. Then maybe take a look at your shuttle.”
Hunter scowled. “Why? You plan to steal it?”
“No, we’re looking for Cheeky, remember? I’m not just going to take you at your word that you don’t know who she is.”
“Who names their kid Cheeky?” Hunter asked as she leaned against the pool table.
Cargo shrugged. “No one, I imagine. She named herself that.”
“Really? Who na—”
“Shut up, Hunter.”
They waited in silence—except for Hunter’s wheezing—until Trevor burst back into the room a minute later.
“I couldn’t raise them!” he said in a rush.
“The satcomm link no good?” Cargo asked.
Trevor shook his head, worry evident in his eyes. “Link was good, just can’t raise anyone. Sabrina, Jessica, no one’s answering.”
“Shit!” Cargo swore. “Captain Hunter, looks like we’ll be making use of your shuttle after all.”
TAKE DOWN
STELLAR DATE: 03.10.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Parda City Spaceport, Ferra, Sullus System
REGION: Midway Cluster, Orion Freedom Alliance Space
Finaeus placed the coffee pot back on its stand and picked up his cup. Delicious black goodness, just waiting for him to consume.
In the case for proving the existence of god, so far as he was concerned, coffee was exhibit A. Maybe. Sex might be exhibit A, but coffee was a close second.
Thinking of sex brought Finaeus’s mind right to thoughts of Cheeky, and that was a place he couldn’t go. Not if he wanted to stay focused.
At any moment, Nance and Jessica might need them. Either to gather intel, or ride to the rescue. No option, or effort was off the table. Push come to shove, he’d demand Sabrina unleash her full arsenal to save Cheeky.
Not that he thought he’d have to push hard. He could tell the ship’s AI was beside herself with worry.
Finaeus poured a second cup for Misha and grabbed a couple of pastries from the basket on the table before walking back out into the corridor. He turned toward the ladder, but then stopped short; there was no way he could manage two cups plus the food.
Why on Earth did that niece of mine never get stairs put in here? He thought before turning back toward the lift at the far end of the passageway.
Something caught his eye as he walked back past the galley. A shadow on the wall that shouldn’t be there.
“Fuck!” Finaeus hollered, and threw his coffee at the shadow before turning and running back to the ladder. He reached it a second later and scrambled up to the command deck.
Finaeus slipped on the last rung, and his shin struck the deck. He struggled to his feet just as something grabbed his ankle and pulled him down.
“Oh, hell no!” Finaeus shouted and kicked out with his other foot, connecting with something that gave out a wheezing sound.
“I know, Sabrina,” Finaeus grunted as he raced toward the bridge’s entrance, and threw himself across the threshold. He signaled the door to close, but it was too late as an invisible weight landed atop him.
“Freeze!” Sabrina’s voice thundered through the bridge and an autoturret lowered, firing a kinetic round at the shifting blur over Finaeus.
The amorphous shape flickered and resolved into the form of a woman, covered head to toe in a gleaming black sheath—except her head which was a featureless oval. For a moment, no one moved, then Finaeus felt a knife at his side.
“Think you can shoot me before I gut him?” the attacker asked in an ethereal-sounding hiss.
“Yes!” Sabrina shouted at the same time that Finaeus cried out. “Stop!”
“It’s been a long time,” the woman said.
“It has?” Finaeus asked. “Do I know you? Did I cut you in line at the deli or something?”
“Yes, you certainly do know me, Finaeus Tomlinson. Can you imagine how surprising it was to see you this deep in Orion?”
“Not as surprising as it is to not see you,” Finaeus grunted, keenly aware of the knife-blade biting into his skin.
“You don’t recognize the sound of my voice?” the woman asked.
Finaeus had to admit, there was something familiar, but it was also strange, like the speaker was breathing in while uttering each word.
The woman leant in close and whispered in Finaeus’s ear. “And here you said that you’d never forget those nights we spent together on Europa. I thought they meant something to you.”
Finaeus felt the blood drain from his face and his breath caught in is throat. “L—Lisa?”
The woman laughed—though it sounded closer to gasping.
“Show me your face,” Finaeus said—half buying time for whatever Sabrina was planning, and half desperate to see the woman again. “I can’t believe you’re still alive…it’s been two thousand years since we last—”
“Since you walked out on me?” Lisa asked. “C’mon, say it. You walked out on me.”
“Lisa…you were siding with Kirkland. I had to stand beside my brother.” Finaeus didn’t speak the other reason; that Lisa was often verbally abusive with their daughter, Sandra.
“And look where that got you. I heard you were exiled—or ran off. The stories vary. Just didn’t think you ran off to Orion. You should have looked me up.”
Lisa snorted the last and Finaeus reached up to touch the smooth faceplate of his ex-wife’s helmet.
“Take this off. Let me look at you.”
“No!” Lisa jerked her head back.
Finaeus wondered what Lisa was hiding. He also wondered why she hadn’t attacked him with nano yet—though he hadn’t tried to infiltrate her either.
“You didn’t expect to find me here,” he said after a moment. “This wasn’t about me at all….”
Lisa shook her head. “Not initially, no, though you’re an excellent prize. But this ship and its shield technology is the real goal.”
“What do you know about that,” Sabrina asked sharply.
“We had agents at Bollam’s World,” Lisa replied. “We saw what you did to that pirate fleet and their shield umbrella. And though it took awhile to get the truth about Marsalla out of RHY, when we got the logs, it became all too clear what ship had been responsible for destroying that world…Sabrina.”
“So RHY was developing bioweapons for the Orion Guard,” Finaeus said. “I can’t believe Kirkland went along with that. He’s always been a proponent of a more conventional conflict.”
Lisa leant in close to Finaeus, pressing her body into his. Old memories flooded back, recollections their past exploits. He remembered her over him like this, her long white hair pooling on either side of his fa
ce. Good times from before the FTL wars, before the retreat and the schism.
“What Praetor Kirkland doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Lisa whispered. “Much.”
“There’s a reason why we don’t make weapons like that, Lisa,” Finaeus retorted. “They’re species killers. Namely humanity.”
“Don’t be naïve, Finaeus,” Lisa tittered. “You’re the ones protecting New Canaan, with their picotech. They’re the real risk, them and your precious Airtha—though I suppose she may not be so precious to you, if the reasons for your exile are to be believed.”
Sabrina chuckled.
“Hey Finaeus,” Cheeky said, appearing over Lisa’s shoulder. “You going to have sex with this woman, or should I pull her off you?”
Lisa turned her head, a look of shock on it. “What? You’re—”
A pulse blast shot out from one of the autoturrets, knocking Lisa off Finaeus.
With tremendous grace—for someone whose bones should feel like they’re the clapper in a bell—Lisa rolled with the pulse blast and came up behind Cheeky, the knife previously at Finaeus’s side held to Cheeky’s throat.
“Enough, Finaeus. Give me the command codes for this ship or I kill this woman.”
“So that’s good news,” Sabrina said. “You haven’t already killed her yet. Means I won’t kill you—yet.”
“What?” Lisa asked as Cheeky reached over her shoulder and grabbed Lisa’s neck with both hands, bending over and lifting the assassin into the air.
Finaeus watched in terror as Lisa jerked the knife blade across Cheeky’s throat before sailing across the bridge where multiple blasts from the bridge’s turrets hit her.
Finaeus rose on shaky legs and frowned; no blood seeped from the gash on Cheeky’s neck. Realization hit him, and he gave a grim smile. “Thanks Addie. Are you OK?”
The AHAP nodded. “I believe so, nothing vital appears to be damaged.”
“Good,” Finaeus replied as he walked around the scan console to see Lisa crumpled on the ground, moaning softly.
“Get that creepy-ass helmet off. Now!” Finaeus ordered his ex-wife.
“Fuck you, Finaeus,” Lisa whispered. Then her voice grew stronger. “This is all your fault. If you hadn’t sided with your power-hungry brother, we would still be together.”
“Living in Kirkland’s utopia, eh?” Finaeus asked. “How’s that working out?”
“Better than living with the abomination that is Airtha,” Lisa shot back.
“Last warning, Lisa. Take off the helmet, or Sabrina fills you with holes.”
Another series of pulse blasts shot out of the turrets, hitting Lisa in the stomach.
“Have some internal bleeding, you stupid woman,” Sabrina said aloud. “I bet I can crush your lower body and Finaeus still can take what he needs from your mind. Or you can just comply.”
Lisa raised a hand in surrender, and touched her neck on one side, and then the other. A second later, her helmet split in two and fell to the floor.
Finaeus gasped and took a step back.
“Was she this hideous when you were married to her, Finaeus?” Sabrina asked after a moment’s awkward silence. “I always thought you were more shallow than that.”
He didn’t respond, taking in the ruin of the woman he had once given his life to. Her skin was alabaster white, appearing transparent in places. She was entirely hairless, not even eyelashes graced her wrinkled eyelids. Her ears were gone, and two long slits sat in the middle of her face—where her nose should be.
White, thin lips twisted into a toothless smile. “Time hasn’t been as kind to me as it has to you.”
Lisa’s voice sounded even more ethereal without the helmet. As though it had come from a long way away and was only echoing out of her.
“What happened to you?” Finaeus asked when the power of speech finally returned to him. “How…why….”
Lisa pressed her lips together and shook her head.
Silence fell between on the bridge once more, until Misha’s voice came over the link.
* * * * *
Jessica fired another pulse blast at the seats where the shadow had disappeared before edging out past the bar.
Nothing moved and only the sound of the bar automaton trying to right itself could be heard.
She peered down the first two rows of seats, which were empty, and then crept to the one at the front at the level, which was clear as well.
A pulse shot rang out, and Jessica turned to see Nance flung backward to hit the ship’s rear wall before falling to the ground.
Jessica caught sight of the shadow for a moment, a shifting mass near the top of the stairs, then it was gone again.
There were only so many routes for the enemy to take, and Jessica took two steps toward the bar, turned, and held out her hand, emitting a piezoelectric pulse at the same moment a pulse blast rolled through the air toward her.
The wave of energy from her hand overpowered the pulse wave, and slammed into the shadow, coalescing it into the shape of a woman.
Jessica didn’t wait to see what else this mysterious figure had in her arsenal. She rushed toward the Widow, while drawing energy from the microbes in her skin. When they collided, she sent a burst of energy into Cheeky and Piya’s abductor.
The woman in black screamed in a strange breathy voice, but took a swing at Jessica and tried to shove her back. Jessica didn’t hesitate to hit her again, and again, and on the fourth blast of energy the woman in black fell to the ground.
Jessica looked down at the slow rise and fall of the woman’s chest.
Jessica knelt beside the woman and looked for a latch or something on her helmet. It seemed to mesh seamlessly with her armor. She dropped a batch of nano on it, some of the last infiltration bots she possessed, and they wormed their way between the helmet and the suit. A seam highlighted on Jessica’s vision as the nano worked their way around highlighting small buttons on each side.
A gentle push on each, and the helmet cracked open, splitting down the middle.
Jessica nodded silently as she prised the helmet apart and then sat back, staring at the strange apparition within.
“What the hell?” she exclaimed.
“What the hell is right?” Cheeky’s voice came from the rear of the shuttle. “Where the heck are we? I didn’t go on a crazy bender did I?”
REGROUP
STELLAR DATE: 03.11.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Parda City Spaceport, Ferra, Sullus System
REGION: Midway Cluster, Orion Freedom Alliance Space
Finaeus and Misha waited at the main bay doors as the Sexy set down next to Sabrina. The pinnace’s ramp slowly lowered, and Finaeus jogged down the gantry to the ground.
Jessica appeared first and the figure she carried stopped Finaeus dead in his tra
cks.
It was Lisa. Another horribly disfigured Lisa.
“What the actual fuck,” he whispered.
“You like our little prize?” Jessica asked with a sour grin. “We got her at the bottom of the cracker box we found Cheeky in.”
“Looks like we’re collecting the whole set,” Finaeus replied.
Jessica’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Then Cheeky came down the ramp, and Finaeus rushed past Jessica and crashed into the young woman, wrapping her in his arms and lifting her into the air.
“Easy, easy,” Cheeky said as she leant her head forward and rested it on his shoulder. “I’m fine. Just a sucker punch in the eye and some sort of suppression net.”
“Dammit, Cheeky,” Finaeus said. “You had me worried half to death.”
Nance followed Cheeky off the shuttle and patted her on the shoulder. “Let’s get you into the ship, I want to run a quick checkup. Make sure there aren’t any surprises inside you.”
“You never let go of the whole, ‘you could be terribly infected’ thing, do you, Nance?”
“Nope, and we’re all still alive because of it. Now, let’s get in.”
They stepped away from the pinnace as its ramp closed up and the ship lifted into the air once more.
“Did we get a new crewmember? Who’s flying the pinnace?” Finaeus asked.
Iris answered.
He walked up the ramp into Sabrina, where Jessica—still holding her Lisa—stopped and turned.
“OK, Fin, what do you mean about the whole set?”
“Didn’t Sabrina tell you on the way back?” Finaeus asked.
Sabrina joined in the conversation.
“Clones?” Jessica asked.