Light and Haze, 7: Darkheart
24 Sep 2021Meowers
These guys were looking pretty satisfied. Triumphant. Excited. They had an awesome ship, they had two new slaves, their bosses will be much pleased... A good reason to stop at the halfway, setting the ship adrift, and start a small zero-G party. Why not? Let them have some fun, with alcohol, smokes and all that fantasies about what they're going to do with 'red one' and 'tall one' as soon as they reach Harma. I wanted to see them loud and careless. In fact, all my thoughts were about this now. What can I do, being tied to that damn handrail anyway? I can only look at them and smirk.
"Hey, you! What's so funny? Or you like the idea, huh?", said one of the slavers, noticing my expression. "Booooys! Why do we have to wait? Let's try this chick right here, on her ship!"
"Yeah! Drag her here, to the console!.. Hey, honey, you're going to see the stars!"
You can imagine the look of their faces, yeah. Nowhere near to being 'human'. Wasn't seeing human beings in them anyway. It makes things easier.
So... I had to defend myself. Well... Wasn't quite planned, but a little fight was quite appropriate at the moment. I waited until one of them comes to unlock the handcuffs. He was pointing a gun at me, but, hey, you need both hands to unlock this. So, then, he grabbed me by the shoulder, trying to drag me away, but I was holding that handrail too tight. Breaking out from the grasp, I landed a heavy kick on his stomach. He doubled over and flew straight to the opposite wall, as his boots lost contact with the floor. Seeing that, his already tipsy companions started to reach for their guns. Had to be quick, covering the distance... Punched him in the face, while he was still trying to catch his breath. Drops of blood filled the air, slaver let out a groan of pain that quickly turned into a loud, dry coughing. Then I snatched a pistol out of his holster and put it to his head. He was still shocked, gasping and rolling his eyes. Right what I need...
Walking backwards and using this man as a living shield, I covered Jacqueline too. Ah... Looks like their little buzz was completely killed now, being replaced by anger and confusion. At least their leader had that kind of face at the moment... And I was, like, even smiling a bit in return.
"Hah! You must be joking. Hhhkrrmm... Yeah, that's a smart move, but there are five more of us... Khhrr... Shoot him, and we will shoot you. Khhhhhrr... Release him, and you'll live", head man was trying to intimidate me again, but I gladly noticed his respiratory issues. And my 'human shield' was hardly breathing after that kick too. That's why I hit the stomach. Plan was in effect...
See, breathing the air with lowered oxygen and raised carbon dioxide levels is bad for health. Symptoms of hypoxia are hard to identify on an early stage, as your senses are degrading slowly, you are becoming fatigued, dizzy, disoriented. You may even not notice it until you start losing consciousness. So, when I was thinking about that 'temperature readings' and air heater, an idea dawned on me. Resetting the control preset to 'standard', I also took some time to adjust the life support settings. Nominal oxygen concentration was lowered, filters were switched off, and cockpit air ducts were closed remotely. Fuel scoop performance was dropped too, to buy more time. With so many people in a cockpit, designed for one or two, and the life support system trying to remove 'excess' oxygen, air quickly became almost unbreathable. And that party with alcohol and smokes made their situation worse, dampening their senses even further. And now they were forced to act sharp, having raised adrenaline. And higher adrenaline means more air consumption. And more intoxication.
That's why I asked to put a helmet on Jacqueline. And was glad to have mine on me. Our filters were overloaded badly, we used plenty of oxygen from suit internal tanks, closed cycle mode was kicking in from time to time, but we still had a proper air to breathe and stay okay.
So I had just to wait a bit more. Having pleasure of looking at my opponents, their pointless arguing with raised voices, attempts to find a way to resolve the situation. They were throwing curses at me, seeing my calm unbreakable smile and hearing nothing from me in return. I was... observing. My human shield almost lost his consciousness and was just floating in front of me. His magboots kept him attached to the floor. Soon, my unwanted guests started to stagger, slouch, lose their balance.
"A... Khhhm! Air! What you have done to the air!? Hhhhh... You, b... Bitch!...", one of them panicked and tried to run in my direction, completely losing his breath halfway. I saw his eyes rolled up and then he stopped, staying afloat with one his boot connected to the deck floor, trying to catch more air, opening his mouth like a fish. And then all was over in a pair of minutes. Looks like oxygen level reached critical. Five minutes more or so and they're all going to die. But I had other plans.
Quickly I moved to the pilot seat and restored the atmosphere settings. Following noise of the ventilation system was almost deafening as it entered the emergency mode instantly. Then I disarmed the slavers, put their stuff in the locker and tied them with several layers of airtight suit repair tape. They won't pose any danger anymore, with their legs tied together and arms tied behind their backs. Health monitors on their suits were showing that they'll recover soon without suffering any brain and heart damage. Awesome. I wanted to see them alive and sane. Feeling. Then I removed Jacqueline's handcuffs, using slaver's set of keys, and told her to keep the helmet on, as air was still far from being safe. We dragged our unlucky captors to the wall and attached their magboots to it, to keep them in place.
Returning to the ship controls, I looked at the nav screen. LHS 3767 system, closer to Harma than to Inara, like, two thirds of the way. Low-populated, unremarkable place, with few interest points and two dull stars. So course was set to the A2b body, that small ball of ice without any atmosphere and little gravity, orbiting the gas giant. It had one settlement, shown on the nav, the Lagarde Nutrition Habitat, so... I will land close to it, without entering the controlled area. Ten kilometres away would be good. They won't hail me on the comms, and still be reachable. Someone will find these guys eventually. Ah, it was on the 'day' side. Good.
Our friends started to wake up when we were landed. Coughing, swearing, making noise. So I interrupted my quiet watching the icy landscape, collected their helmets and put them on their heads. Disabling the mic on each one: let them enjoy the silence. And then I started dragging them down the main corridor and throwing out of the airlock. That feeble attempts to resist were... Amusing. Once all six thugs were outside, I returned to take my rifle. Also I took the medkit and passed it to Jacqueline, sitting in the co-pilot seat. Her bleeding stopped a long time ago, but she still needed to clean her face and treat the injury, and air was safe enough already. When I did that, I noticed that she was... Umm... Looking into my eyes. Like, intently... What she had seen? Don't know. And, I guess, I'll never know.
I went outside, stepped on the surface and stood for a minute, staring at the endless, nameless icy desert. Inhabited installation was far away and barely visible, and the skies were black, deep and full of stars. Ice, that was reaching the horizon, was perfect. Pristine. Untouched. Over, maybe, millions of years. No movement. No sounds. Only the ice at my feet and countless stars over my head. This world was crystal cold and silent.
Five slavers and their companion were laying on that ice in front of me, tied, weakened, slowly and pointlessly trying to turn or crawl. The only thing they could hear on the comms was my steady breath. So I brought them up one by one, making them face me. Forcing them to their knees, I lined them up, with their leader being at the right.
I've started from the left. First slaver clenched his teeth and closed his eyes in his last moments. Rifle round shattered his helmet and went through the head, that instantly turned into a red, slowly dissipating cloud of freezing tissues and evaporating blood. Ice behind him turned red, littered by small pieces of fractured cranium and jagged metal. Body slowly started to fall forward, to my feet. The line trembled, somebody was trying to move. Remaining silent, I proceeded. One step, one glance, one shot. Reaching their leader, I looked in his eyes and smiled once more before pulling the trigger.
And my work here is done.