by Johnny Stone
“In theory it should work, so long as we don’t run into anything while in jump space. The odds are against it, but if we do, it’s over. As for coming out on the other side, that might be a little trickier. We don’t know the exact location of your beacon, if it’s planet side we would have to compensate so we come out of the corridor a safe distance away. Say, three to four hundred thousand kilometers.”
James turned back to his food, glancing up at Sandy over his fork of pasta, and saw the expression on her face. The thought of, ‘oh shit’, barely had time to register before she lunged at Burke across the table with the speed and grace of a striking cobra.
There was a localized explosion of expensive dinnerware and food as she slid across the table colliding with Burke. Despite readying himself to receive her impromptu attack at the last moment, Sandy’s momentum carried her forward into his arms and they both toppled over in a tangled continuation of destruction.
“Son of a bitch! I’ll kill you!”
Sandy’s hands sought wildly in the fray for a weakness, first Burke’s neck and then his eyes, while he fought desperately to restrain her and protect what vital areas he could without causing any bodily harm in the process.
“Sandy! No!”
James was on his feet, trying to work close enough to the ongoing struggle without actually getting caught up in the middle of it.
“Get her off me, Jimmy!”
“I’m trying, dammit!”
Sandy had almost managed to work herself into a sitting position atop Burke, and used it to take a rapid swing at his face. Her enhancements might be downgraded, but if she connected it would still cause extensive damage, instead of the bone-crushing effect that it would have on a normal person. Fortunately James managed to catch a brief hold on her upper arm in the downward swing, deflecting it enough that her nails raked across his cheek leaving two bloody furrow in their wake.
“That’s enough, Sandy! Stand down,” James shouted, finally getting a firm hold of her shirt, yanking her backwards in a flailing mess.
“Let go of me, dammit!” Sandy stumbled to her feet, pulling against the restraining grip on both her upper arms from behind. “They were goddamn rebel sympathizers, and he knows it! I was only following orders – his orders – and no one had my back during the court marshal! I did jail time because of you!”
Burke was on his feet in an instant, seething with clenched fists and a trickle of blood running down his cheek, barely containing his anger.
“Get her out of here, Jimmy,” Burke hissed through clenched teeth, “before I forget we’re both on the same side.”
“I’m on it, boss!”
James carefully manhandled Sandy from the room by sheer size alone with a bear hug, while she squirmed frantically to break free of his grip.
“I’m going to kick your fucking ass, you aristocrat prick! Let me go, dammit!”
Sandy’s screeching vehemence faded down the hallway, while Burke took deep, calming breaths that caused his nostrils to flare aggressively. He’d long had his doubts about hiring her for a mission this important, and he regretted the fact now more than ever. Getting rid of her was out of the question, he still needed her, or at least a competent body, and Burke wasn’t so sure any longer which way James would go on the matter. How he put up with her psychotic episodes was beyond him. Granted, that had been a cheap shot on his part that had set her off, but respect was a two way street, and he had no respect for a person who didn’t show respect in kind. She also seemed to forget the fact that it had been his intervention on her behalf with the Judge Advocate’s Office that staved off the death penalty, and she had only served six months of a life sentence of hard labor.
Burke shook his head surveying the mess of a ruined meal, and partially destroyed kitchen. He began the time consuming chore of cleaning up, momentarily regretting his decision to deactivate all of the housekeeping bots. This was not turning out to be a good day, not in the least.
***
Sandy had stopped cursing and struggling for the most part, resigned to her ignoble situation by the time James entered their room. The door slid shut noiselessly behind them and he lowered her to her feet, releasing his death hold on her. She immediately shrugged her shoulders working out the kinks, painfully massaging her breasts.
“You ass-hat. Who do you think you are hauling me around like a piece of luggage? Not to mention you were crushing the hell out of my tits.”
James crossed his arms, staring down at her with his best impersonation of an adult scolding a child after a temper tantrum.
“Are you done?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means exactly that. Are you done?”
Sandy paused, searching his eyes, looking for the hidden meaning of his question that held numerous answers. There was something in his expression and the tone of his voice that made her feel uneasy, if not embarrassed for her outburst in the kitchen. It made her want to put a five-knuckle kiss across his mouth, then leap into his arms to be held and loved. She wanted to kick him in the balls, then drop to her knees kissing them. She wanted to tell James to fuck off, to pack her bags and put the last weeks behind her forever, yet she wasn’t sure if she could continue living without him any longer. In the end she simply turned away and hung her head.
“Yeah, I’m done.” That’s when the first sniffle started, like a slight crack in an impenetrable wall that cascaded into a crumbling tremor of tears.
James’ expression softened, and he slipped up behind her placing his hands on her shoulders, leaning in close to her ear, taking a deep breath of her outpouring soul.
“You can’t fight the entire universe, Sandy, because you’re going to lose. Tell you what, why don’t you be a good girl and go take a shower, get your head straight again. Okay?”
“Don’t call me that. I won’t be anyone’s good girl again.”
James sensed something in her coming to a head; something buried deep that strove to break free of her wavering composure. For once in his life he listened to his better judgment, biting back a humorous or sarcastic reply. Instead he pulled her closer, brushing aside her hair to expose a tear-streaked cheek.
“Why can’t you be a good girl? Tell me.”
In a flash of agony the memories came crashing back, as if it had just happened. Things that had been locked away and hidden for so many years became the current reality in the filthy shadows of Sandy’s mind, their mocking voices and laughter. The way they smelled, reeking of alcohol and body odor. The way their hands felt on her, violating her long-lost innocence in ways she didn’t even understand at the time. She could feel the pain of them inside her, leering down at her, enjoying that pain. She’d never spoken of it, denying that any of it had even happened, even to herself. Until now.
“Because,” Sandy took a labored breath, barely able to speak. “Good girls are taken advantage of because they’re gullible and weak. Good girls do what they’re told, because they’re afraid of getting hurt and what other people will think of them. Because good girls are anything but good.”
“I don’t understand,” James asked softly, truly at a loss.
“There were three of them, sometimes more, but always those three.” She turned in place, still in his arms, looking up at him through red, blurry eyes filled with shame and hate. “I was their good girl for nearly a month, every day, until one day I wasn’t afraid of them any longer.”
Sandy pulled away from James, and he reluctantly let her go. She turned her back to him several steps away, wrapping her arms about herself in a comforting, self-embrace while rocking back and forth slightly on the balls of her feet. Her tears gradually diminished with the return of fragile self-control and her tone changed, taking on the monotone enthusiasm of a walking corpse.
“I can’t even imagine what you must think of me now; how dirty and polluted you must think I am.”
James took a reluctant step in her direction, almost reaching for her, but didn�
�t. His mind began to wander, reading between the lines of her hinting comments, realizing the true horror hidden beneath them. It was a rare moment in his life when he was left speechless, feeling emotions that ranged from sympathy, to animalistic fury. He wanted to say so much to her, but nothing seemed adequate to ease her pain.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Of course, it was, I let myself be their victim and never said a word to anyone about what was happening, not even after I cut their throats one night after they passed out. I didn’t want people to look at me differently. I didn’t want people to know what a truly repulsive woman I’d become.”
“Sandy…”
“I want to be alone for a little while.”
“Sandy, please. You shouldn’t be alone right now.”
There was a noticeable pause that hung heavy in the air between them, before Sandy slowly turned her head, glancing briefly at him out of the corner of her eye.
“Go, I’ll be fine. I just need some time is all.”
Accepting her forced isolation was one of the hardest things James had ever done, but then again, maybe some time alone was just what she needed to sort things out in her head.
“Take as long as you need, and when you’re ready, I’ll be waiting for you in the kitchen.”
“James? Thank you, for everything. You don’t know how much your kindness has meant to me.”
When James entered the kitchen a few minutes later, deep in troubled thought, Burke was in the process of cleaning up the scattered mess, and he joined him without a word, working in silence. Ten minutes later the kitchen had returned to some semblance of normalcy.
Burke poured himself a cup of coffee and sat back down at the table, lighting a cigarette.
“You want another plate?”
Burke shook his head no.
“Suit yourself, but I’m hungry.”
“Two things you’ve always been able to do, Jimmy; eat and sleep without missing a beat. How is she?”
James returned to his seat with a plate of lukewarm food, staring down at it, picking at it with his fork. He shrugged after a few moments, shaking his head.
“I don’t know, Colonel. I’m worried about her.”
“She’ll be fine,” Burke said indifferently. “Remember this is Snake we’re talking about. She’s a survivor. always has been.”
James almost let his callous comment fall to the wayside, and in the past he would have, but not any longer.
“You better check fire, Colonel. I could say the same thing about Margo.”
Burke took a long pull of his cigarette, sitting up a little straighter, matching James’ glare from across the table.
“Point taken,” Burke replied coldly. “But she’s become a liability to the mission at this point, and I won’t let anything jeopardize it, not even her. I might be able to get Martinez in time,” Burke said thoughtfully. “He was my second choice.”
“If Sandy goes, I go.”
The room grew so quiet, so suddenly, that you could have heard a pin drop.
“You surprise me.” Burke stubbed out his smoke, cautiously eyeing James. “First time I think I’ve ever heard you give me an ultimatum like that before. You mean it?”
“Yes, Nathan, I do. You’re my best friend, and I would take a bullet for you in a heartbeat, but you don’t know what she’s been through. I can't leave her. Not now, not like this. I’m sorry, and if there was any other way…”
“I know exactly what she’s been through, and figured the rest out on my own.” Burke took a deep breath, staring up at the ceiling with a resigned expression, speaking as if reciting a well-rehearsed script. “She was forcibly uprooted from her home on Earth at the age of 12 along with her family and four hundred other families by the Population Authority’s Relocation Program. She spent her 13th birthday in the cargo hold of a Star Drop Colonial transport ship, an LLC of non-other than Burke Industries. The planet they were bound for was KS-433, but the survey team and the colony’s advanced party six months ahead of the main ship gave it the official name of Hadean II. It barely met the minimum requirements for a safe, inhabitable site.”
Burke paused, looking at James, trying to decipher his mixed expression. The outcome of this entire discussion wasn’t going to be pretty given the recent turn of events, but it was time to clear the air, and let James in on the truth.
“The survey team had detected what appeared to be large deposits of several precious metals, and that was the motivating force behind the decision to colonize a rock that was scarce of water and nearly devoid of natural vegetation and wildlife. KS-433 had erratic and violent temperature swings with accompanying weather patterns, and the indigenous population, a race of primitive subterranean quadrupeds, was immediately hostile towards human occupation. One year after the colony was established, Star Drop Colonial, or Burke Industries depending how you want to look at it, pulled the colony’s charter, it wasn’t profitable in the long run. The indigs refused to communicate peaceably and were resisting human expansion more staunchly than anyone expected. Security and terra-forming costs skyrocketed, and the expected mineral deposits proved to be a bust, nothing but sub-surface veins.”
James shook his head in disbelief. “Your brother is a real cocksucker, you know that? I assume you didn’t know about their charter being revoked?”
“Of course, it was Donovan, and I didn’t have a clue at the time. To be honest, I had no reason to care. I was just about to graduate from Officer’s Academy and already had orders assigning me to my first combat command. I doubt it was anything more than a fleeting decision on his part after reviewing pre-prepared reports on the colony’s status. Hell, it was just a minor crisis in his big world that he might not even have known about until after the fact. Either way, Snake has always blamed me personally for what happened to her, growing up in that hell-hole, after being assigned under my command.” Burke took another deep breath, resigned to see this through to the end. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Everything I’ve said thus far is a matter of public record if you go looking, but there’s more.
“After the money dried up and the independent and corporate owned security forces were withdrawn, the colony fell into disarray and nothing short of war-torn anarchy ensued over the next four years. Seventy five percent of the colony’s initial population was killed in a civil war, with three groups vying for power, fighting over supplies, while fending off attacks by the indigs. Snake’s psych eval indicates there is a 90% probability that she was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions while in her mid teens, as all this was going on. She also lost several close family members and loved ones as a result of the fighting, while being baptized in blood as nothing more than a child soldier. There wasn’t much left of the colony by the time the Federation relief force arrived with a Regular Army detachment to quell the indig’s and restore order.”
“Goddamn you…” James hissed vehemently. “You knew all this and never said a word to me?”
“It was personal information, classified, and I respect that privacy. If she had wanted you to know—”
“She did tell me, just a little while ago! And since we’re in the middle of soul baring session,” James’ voice dropped to a harsh whisper, “I want to know what the hell really happened on Meridia. Sandy said she was following your orders, is it true?”
“You don’t want to know, Jimmy, trust me.”
“Yes I do, dammit!”
Movement out of the corner of his eye caught Burke’s attention, and his face dropped in momentary shock. James turned in his seat, drawn by his unexpected reaction.
Sandy stood just inside the kitchen with red puffy eyes, deathly pale, naked and soaking wet. Her arms were outstretched, slashed vertically from the inside of her elbows to her palms. Rivers of blood ran down them in thick, dark trails becoming a watery bath pooling at her feet.
“James? I’m sorry. I… I didn’t know what else to do.”
Burke sprang to his feet jus
t as Sandy’s eyes started to roll back in her head. She wavered unsteadily for a moment, before falling unconscious into his arms.
Chapter Seventeen
The room was cool and smelled lightly of purified air and disinfectant. James sat on a stool beside the hospital style bed, head downcast, holding Sandy’s hand. His sagging eyelids fluttered, fighting sleep and emotional fatigue as he had for the last several hours while maintaining a silent vigil at her side. He glanced up at her vitals display on the monitor above the bed, satisfied all was well, lowering his head again. All he wanted her to do was to wake up so he could hold her and tell her everything would be fine.
The immediate threat had passed. Sandy would live and make a full physical recovery, but if it hadn’t been for the Colonel’s quick reactions and the fact that he had a fully stocked medical bay in his wing of the house, it would have been a much different story. She had been within minutes of bleeding out and Nathan had saved her, while he’d simply froze up like a cherry recruit after their first exposure to the grizzly business of war.
“Talk about falling short at the moment of truth,” James said softly, shaking his head in disgust. It’s so much different when it’s someone you love.
Light footfalls from behind drew closer, stopping at the entrance to the medical bay. An annoying, snapping crunch cut the dreary mood of the room grating on James’ frayed nerves.
“How’s she doing?” Nathan asked through a mouthful of apple.
“Fine, wounds look good. No permanent nerve or tendon damage.” He glanced down at her closest forearm covered in transparent syntha-flesh. The scars had already faded to the point of erratic, soft pink lines against her pale skin. In a month the casual observer wouldn’t even be able to tell they’d been laid open to the bone.”
“You need to get some sleep, Jimmy. I’ll sit with her for awhile.”
“No, I won’t leave her. I need to be here when she wakes up.”