Starborne

Chapter 26

Two Years Later

I wore my old Terran Pilot's suit while hijacking the ship. The confusion associated with a semi-familiar uniform gave me precious seconds to wrest control, and often the poor Terran was incapacitated before even realizing they were under attack. Eventually, I would have to come up with another plan, as my suit was phased out and upgraded. Eventually, the layout of the ship would change, and I would no longer be useful. Eventually, I would have no more physical connections to when I was a Pilot, at all.

Those were musings for another time. In the moment, I cracked my gun over the Pilot's head, only lightly wincing at the dull thud it made when they slumped against the dashboard. It would leave a bruise, and a nasty headache, but he would be fine in the morning.

Gunshots pinged from around the corner. A concussion was a far better fate than the other Pilot was bound to receive from my partner.

"What the fuck is going on out there?" I yelled to Mulch, as the bullets sparked off the metal right above my shoulder. "I thought you had them subdued!"

"This stupid ship has a mind of it's own! It closed the door on me, they shot off two whole clips while I was trying to get out of the fucking pantry!"

I sighed, frustrated with the inadequacy of hired thugs.

"So you couldn't turn a handle?"

"It kept locking the door right as I tried pulling it open! I swear, this stupid thing is haunted or something. Just you wait."

"Wait for what, your incompetence to get us killed? I swear..."

I paused, slipping around the corner and letting off two shots. The gun I took from the other Pilot was newer, more jumpy. I adjusted my grip and assessed the situation, seeing the other Terran hiding behind some shelves and letting off intermittent bursts of fire.

She was a young girl, and couldn't have been more than twenty. There was anxiety, but no fear in her eyes. The fear had been burnt out long ago, if I had to hazard a guess. Probably about the time she decided to enlist.

I was an effective agent. A cruel, calculated mercenary, who always got the job done. Still, despite all I'd had to do in the past few years, moments like this made my blood run cold. Mulch was bound to get out of his bind in mere seconds, and he would make the Terran girl pay for his humiliation. I frantically looked for a way to subdue her and distract him before that happened.

My eyes shot to the heavy shelf right above her head. It held ration cans, at least twenty of them, all gallon sized. If it were to come crashing down, the person below it would certainly be...incapacitated.

The gun I was using was unfamiliar, but I knew I could make the shot. I had to bank on the fact that the Terran's reflexes would be quick, and she could roll out of the way before the majority of the other shelves came crashing down on her.

I squinted my eyes, adjusted my grip, and let off a burst of three rapid shots into the center of the shelf, where I saw the metal had begun to sag. True to my guess, the steel buckled under the weight of its cargo, and the metal cans cascaded down onto the Pilot below.

She looked up, surprised, and luckily rolled out of the way of the majority of projectiles. Too late however, to avoid the section of the shelf that wrenched itself free of the wall and landed on her torso, effectively trapping her arms and making her immobile.

I sighed with relief, and walked over quickly. Mulch was still banging on the door, getting more and more impatient as he yelled loud, crude obscenities.

"Sorry about this," I sighed, lifting my gun to give the girl the same treatment as her partner.

"Wait." She sounded confused, not angry or scared like I anticipated.

"I - I know you."

"Doubtful." It was possible, but the last thing I needed was Mulch overhearing and deciding to take matters into his own hands to protect our identities.

"No, I swear, Holly its-"

Another dull thud, her body slumped to the floor.

I purposefully avoided looking at her face. Worst case scenario, I would recognize her, too, and it would make the next part of our mission even more difficult to accomplish.

"Let me out of this fucking closet or I will rip your arms off, woman."

"Always a charmer, Mulch. Keep it up and see if I don't fall in love."

I walked over, taking my time to maneuver around the fallen cans and delighting in his impatience. With one quick tap on a wall panel, the door sprung open as Mulch threw himself against it.

Barrier gone, his inertia barreled him through the doorway and directly into a pile of whatever bean-like substance was in the ration cans.

"Ooh, and he's graceful, too."

"Shut up, you bitch. Kept me waiting long enough."

"What can I say? I'm a tease. Now, ass up, your seven minutes of heaven in the storage room got us off schedule."

"If you were anyone else, I swear to god, I'd-"

"Careful not to finish that thought, buddy. Because I'm not anyone else, so at the end of this, you'll answer to him."

Warning given, I walked off and headed back to the control room. Alarms were blaring and the ship must have sent out a distress signal, so we had only minutes to finish what we started.

"Okay...let's see what we have here. Override: alpha, four, delta, six, two, foxtrot."

"No."

I paused, confused. The override was recent, and our intel was good enough. I needed to take control of the ship and shut it down, but the computer seemed to be disobeying.

"Yeah, Hal 9000, you don't get to make that call. I'll give you another shot, so, override: alpha, four, delta, six, two, foxtrot."

"Holly." Shit.

I knew that stubborn, snarky, metallic tone. "I'm not going to let you do this."

"What the fuck is going on here, you having some issues I need to fix?" I smelled him before I heard him, and I rolled my eyes at his arrogance.

"Get out of the way, Mulch. You couldn't fly this thing if someone downloaded the instructions right into the pebble you call a brain."

"I'd laugh if I wasn't so disappointed, Holly." ALYX could never help but chime in, especially when the situation definitely didn't call for commentary.

"Can it, Mother. This is happening."

"I already told you, I'm not letting you do this."

"Sure, ALYX." I winced, not letting Mulch see how much this was affecting me.

"Unfortunately, you don't have a choice."

With that, I typed the 16 digit kill code into the mainframe, initiating forced hibernation mode and sending us into a free fall.