Surviving The Theseus

by Randy Noble

  She missed Rachel. Even though she barely knew her, she grew to respect her, understand her, something she never bothered doing before, with anyone. She never wanted to understand, to get to know anyone, because there could never be trust, or that’s what she thought for most of her life. But she trusted the SPARS -- well, most of them -- and that, also, gave her hope.

  Regina sat for awhile in silence, as did most of the SPARS, everyone serene from just learning what had happened. She smiled at anybody who looked her way but then turned away, lost in her own thoughts.

  It took them all by surprise when the ship walls seemed to disappear before their eyes to reveal a panoramic view of space, only the floor visible beneath their feet. They all knew they were in the alien ship, the ship found in a small silver case; a ship somehow made bigger by a spirit’s thoughts. But what they didn’t know was where in space they were. As soon as the walls disappeared and they saw Pyramid One, they knew what was happening. They watched what needed to be done, what had been put in motion hours before.

  Pyramid shattered to pieces as the sun it had been directed towards, since breaking free from the matchstick grid, violently pulled it in. The ship -- shredded, torn, wrecked, cursed -- bubbled, melted, and disintegrated, and any suffering remaining on the ship ceased, virus destroyed.

  Chapter 55

  Six months later, most of it had blown over, but not for those that lived it.

  Pyramid Cruise Line got the report from SPARS, and all survivors were sworn to secrecy or they would be silenced another way. Another way was not specified, but they all knew what it meant.

  No government agency anywhere was punished that Regina ever found out about. She suspected it went deeper than she knew. What she did know was that it was a night for celebration, celebrating the destruction of a planet, and hopefully an end to any chance of the virus ever resurfacing. As an agent not controlled by any one government, TRAST became her friend. She didn't want to know how they did it or what they created, but something powerful enough to destroy not just every living thing on the surface of a planet, but the planet itself. She was sure this would bring a new era of potential nightmares if the wrong people got a hold of it. But, at the same time, that planet needed to be destroyed, or someone, somewhere, sometime, would venture onto it again, and that was more inherently risky than some planetary dooms day device. At least, right now.

  Regina had not worked for six months, taking an extended leave. She sat, alone, in a dimly lit lounge, her head down in thought, waiting for Michael. Not a date, but someone who became a friend, one who made her laugh, and she needed that.

  She lifted her head and looked around. It was busy. The lounge had an open seating plan with plain looking wooden tables and wooden chairs, an L-shaped layout. Regina watched, facing the corner of the L so she could easily see both sides. A large group of friends dominated one section, with a mish mash of couples, friends, male and female, on the other end. All seemed happy or deep into some conversation.

  Regina dropped her head again, looking at her scarred and burned hands. What did she have to show for all her work? She tried, tried hard to get back to the hunt, but after being the hunted, it didn't feel right. Not yet. The SOAD were lower in numbers, but by no means overworked. There were others to cover her work, for now, maybe forever. She just didn't know.

  When she lifted her head again, a man stood before her table, staring at her. It surprised her, and she snapped back slightly. Only six months and she didn't notice a strange looking man approach her. Sloppy. He wasn't totally repulsive, but her bad vibe alarm rang out. Something about him was off. He seemed neat in appearance enough, clean-shaven, dark hair styled, ironed dress shirt and jeans, clean cut. His expression said otherwise.

  "Hello, Regina," he said.

  "How do you know my name?" Regina asked, staring directly at him, but watching four other men, two on each side, out of her periphery.

  Even before he said anything, she knew something was wrong, and she also knew it was too late. She wore a half leather trench coat, concealing her necessities, but she didn't dare reach for them. She didn’t dare move her hands.

  "Look, SOAD, there are no less than four high caliber rifles trained on you as I speak. The door is secured and the artillery for the show about to be set up. Pull out your weapon and place it on the table."

  It was them, the murdering workers who felt they were so wronged, but now they not only stepped over the line, they erased its existence. They were off planet, coming a great distance to what? Exact revenge because she killed one of their own, if they even knew about that, or was this the continuing attempt to wipe out the SOAD? She would be the first in six months. The SOAD department never did discover the leak, and this person must have figured six months was long enough to wait to continue their campaign.

  Regina slowly reached into her jacket. "This is a new low for the pussy pack."

  "Such language, for a lady."

  Regina didn't say anything. She brought out one gun and placed it onto the table, black shining metal in the dim lounge light. She watched from the corner of her eye as rifles inched closer to her, the bearers probably getting nervous and stiffening their arms forward.

  "Do I really need to bring out a detector?" the Strange Man said.

  Regina reached in and got the second weapon, placing it beside the other, both double barrels pointing at the man.

  "Two SOAD destroyer weapons? Wow. Most of your type just have one."

  Regina blinked, saying nothing. Thoughts of Michael entering the bar and getting killed concerned her greatly. She had no time to mess around. Things needed to be put in order, and fast. Time was on her side though, because she got to the bar two hours before she was supposed to meet him. There was an hour left. She hoped he did not arrive early like she did.

  "Nothing to say?" He paused, putting a hand behind his right ear in a listening pose. "Good. What about the forty-five? I was told you carry a forty-five."

  "Not today, friend. Normally I do, you're correct, but since I started using a second destroyer, I didn't feel the need for it anymore." Regina couldn't help it; she gave him a fake smile.

  "Well then, you'll understand that I don't trust you." He turned and nodded at somebody behind him.

  A portly fellow, middle-aged, panting at the trek from two tables over to Regina's table, brought out a weapon-detecting device. The fat man waved the handheld device a safe distance away from Regina, down from her head to the top of the table. The fat man looked over at his friend.

  "Stand, please," Strange Man said. "And take your jacket off and leave it on the seat."

  Regina complied, pulling the jacket off and placing it on the table instead of on her seat. As she did, Strange Man picked up her weapons and held onto them. "Heavy," he said.

  "For some." She couldn't resist.

  Strange Man looked down at her belt, furrowed his brows, and said, "Nice belt."

  The fat man continued the scan, walking backward as Strange Man waved for Regina to come out into the open and away from the table. She, again, complied. "Nothing else, sir," the fat man said.

  "Good good. Thank you." The fat man walked back to where he stood previously. "I think you will find this little experiment . . . interesting."

  Until this point, others looked over curiously, but nobody paid any real attention. The men with rifles were visible but hidden somewhat from the view of others. It was not until two groups of three men came in that everyone stopped what they were doing and worry spread over all their faces.

  As the two groups of men each carried in a sentry gun, each gun attached to a tripod, somebody else closed, locked, and guarded the entrance door. They placed them both down, grunting as they did so, in parallel with one another, barrels facing opposite directions. The tripods were squat and did not stand far off the ground, the guns themselves maybe two feet in the air. The guns were short barreled, Regina guessed they were sawed down, and very high caliber, of the type she would norm
ally see attached to a gun ship. The ejection port alone looked like it was four inches in length. The carbine holding the ammunition sat under the middle of the gun, feeding up underneath it, and it took up almost the whole length of the gun and rested on the floor. Regina didn't know how much ammunition there was, but it was a lot, more than enough to kill everyone in this bar and probably five other bars.

  Some people got up from their tables, and that's when the rest of the guns made their appearance. There were twenty men, aged twenty to at least sixty, spread throughout the bar. The appearance of weapons was enough for some people to sit back down, but others had to be told to sit down and shut up. All eyes moved to Regina and the Strange Man.

  "I'll be blunt, Regina. Any way this goes ends with you not walking out of here. I'll give you two options in a minute, but first, a little display of my sincerity."

  Before Pyramid, Regina never needed or wanted to understand, but now she did. Why did these blue-collar workers go from hard working to hard killing with seemingly no remorse? It made no sense to her. "Can you please explain one thing to me, before you do this, and I'll go quietly."

  "What's that?"

  "What happened to you? You lost your job so you're willing to kill all these people, just to prove a point?"

  "People like you will never understand. It's more than that. Those jobs --" He air quoted the word “jobs”. "-- were handed down generation to generation. It was our pride, our livelihood, everything we've ever known. It wasn't to be taken away from us. It's no different than somebody coming into your home, kicking you out, and then living there, using your things and living your life. Sacrifices are a necessity or this will happen again and again."

  Regina then knew that these people would never be reasoned with. And she also knew that these people needed to be made an example of. Murdering others to make a point was unacceptable, intolerable, and her blood began to boil. Whatever you are, you are, and she felt no guilt and no remorse at something she felt down to her core to be right, and to be necessary. How, was the question. There were still four guns on her and the slightest movement would bring her down and then she had no doubt everybody in the bar would die.

  Strange Man turned around, after he got no response from Regina. "Everyone," he spoke at the top of his voice. "I need you to please get up and move over to the other section of this place." He pointed over to the L-Section where the guns were not sitting. Most popped up and hurried over. Some hesitated. "Hurry, people. If this goes as it should, none of you will be hurt. We are here for --" Still facing away from Regina, he swung his left arm back and pointed at Regina with her own weapon. "-- her only."

  The strays got up and moved over to the other section. Most everyone stood, watching, and any that were seated, also stood to see what was going on.

  "That includes you too, my SOAD friend," Strange Man said.

  Regina moved over with the others, all of them backing away from her like she smelled bad.

  Strange Man handed Regina's weapons to one of his men. "Now, before we start, I must warn you all." He looked at the group, his men standing beside or behind him, two men now guarding the door, and Regina figured there would be more outside around the building. "Please, stay where you are. These weapons are sentry guns and believe me, they are ultra sensitive to the slightest movement. When they fire, your instinct will be to panic and run, but that would be a mistake. I promise you that where you are now, the barrel facing this way cannot reach." He clapped his hands together. "Good good."

  Strange Man turned to his companions. "Turn it on -- oh, that reminds me." He turned back to the crowd. "Just in case you're curious, because I think this is pretty cool, the guns will not fire upon myself or any one of my men. They're smart, smart guns."

  One of the younger men brought out a remote and pressed a button. The gun facing them activated, a green light glowing on the tripod, and the gun rose up from its slumped down position. Strange Man grabbed a beer bottle from a table, himself between it and the gun. "Now, just so you all know, as far as the gun sees things, this beer bottle is seen as an extension of myself so it won't fire, but once I let it go -- whew! -- well, you'll see. It's pretty exciting."

  The crowd did not share his enthusiasm. They were pushing back, stepping on toes, and distancing themselves from the guns as much as they could, or maybe it was just her. Regina moved to the right more. The gun did not fire so they must have been out of sensor range.

  Strange Man threw the bottle into the air. The ceilings were low, and normally, throwing a bottle in the air, it would have hit the ceiling almost immediately, because from his arm extension to the ceiling only left three feet. The bottle shattered in a roar of bullets, most of them pelting the wall behind, puncturing holes through the plaster and out through brick. What was left of the bottle, shards, fell to the floor. The spray of bullets lasted a second, but it didn't lessen the acoustic rape of everyone's ears.

  People, men and women, screamed.

  "Whew! Good good. Exciting. Sorry it's so loud. Hard to avoid in this small space. Gotta take the good with the bad, my friends."

  These guys were not going to let any of them live. They were not hiding appearances at all and Regina was sure they had much more killing to do to prove their point, and, of course, the goal of wiping out the SOAD. And, they must have followed her to the bar, so why wait so long? They could have gotten her outside.

  How much time had passed? She couldn't be sure and none of it would matter if Michael showed early. She never lost sight of who had her weapons, nor lost sight of the four men pointing guns at her. All she needed was a second, maybe not even, but they never stopped watching her.

  Strange Man clapped his hands, like he was applauding the gun for its performance. "All right, Regina, this is the moment. Are you ready for your two options?"

  She did not respond.

  "I'll take that as a yes," he said. "Short and sweet. Here it comes. Kill yourself and everyone else lives or we start killing everybody one at a time, until either they all are dead, then we kill you anyway, or --" He winked at Regina. "-- until you finally agree to kill yourself wherever we are at with the killing of the rest, and then we'll stop at that point."

  The crowd looked at Regina, some of them shaking their heads, she hoped because they thought it was an impossible decision. She didn't know what the pussy pack thought she was, but it was not stupid. The nerve. The fucking nerve. She had been considering letting some of them live, the ones that didn't get in the way, but now she knew she would kill them all. Regina had not an ounce of doubt in her mind that even if she did kill herself, they would kill everyone anyway.

  "Go fuck yourselves," Regina said.

  "I'll take that as a no," Strange Man said. He snapped his fingers. Remote Man clicked the remote and the power to the tripod and gun flicked off, the gun slumping back down.

  One of the cronies, not one of the four hawk watching bastards with rifles pointed at Regina, walked over to the crowd and pulled out a young girl who couldn't have been more than twenty. She resisted, pulling and twisting as a large man with long, black curly hair, a plethora of facial hair, and arms and legs like a gorilla, pulled her by the right arm. She screamed.

  Strange Man snapped his fingers again.

  Gorilla Man pulled out a large caliber handgun and shot the girl in the head at close range. Blood and brain matter sprayed the crowd behind. Two people, a man and a woman, threw up.

  The group backed up again, squishing those behind, pushing tables and chairs against the wall, chipping and gouging it.

  The young girl's corpse thudded to the ground. Gorilla Man grabbed another female, to the right of what must have been the dead girl's friend or sister, because she screamed, falling to her knees, staring at the corpse.

  "Shut up!" Strange Man yelled. She didn't. Gorilla Man let go of the thirty-something brunette woman he was yanking toward Strange Man, pulled out his gun, and shot the friend of the corpse in the head; more brain matter and goo
flew into the crowd. People screamed and then everybody promptly shut up as Strange Man glared at them.

  Regina didn't watch the horrifying murders, other than what she caught in her periphery. She concentrated on only those pointing guns at her. Two were distracted by the killings and couldn't help themselves, watching the two girls die. The other two wavered, but not enough for Regina to make her move.

  Gorilla Man grabbed the brunette woman again, as she stood quivering uncontrollably, her eyes darting everywhere, her head not moving. He pulled her toward Strange Man, and she did not resist.

  Once in front of Strange Man, the gorilla let her go. "Sorry you had to see that, Sweetie," Strange Man said, "but I'm afraid it was necessary."

  "W-what are ya-you going t-to do to me?" the brunette said.

  "Nothing, Honey Doll, that our friend, Regina, couldn't put a stop to right now. How about it, Regina?"

  Regina felt the stares on her, the scathing looks of hatred. She had no doubt some of the people blamed her, feeling they would take their own lives to save the lives of others. Maybe one or two of them would, but it would be in vain, and would stop nothing. "You have my answer already," Regina said.

  "That I do, my SOAD friend. That I do. I thought you might change it though, but I guess you're more heartless than I thought. You don't care about anybody but yourself, I see now."

  It didn't faze her. Nothing he could say would faze her in the least. He was nothing to her. His opinions and comments had no more meaning than if they had come from a talking piece of shit, which is exactly what he was to her.

  Strange Man paused, probably for effect, letting it sink into the crowd. "Well, Regina, you'll understand if I go through the motions anyway." He gently grabbed the brunette woman around the shoulders, turning her to face the gun. "That's good, Sweetness. Now, stay there." He backed away. "Oh, and please raise your arms for me, spreading your fingers out."