The Sirius Job, Part 6
25 May 2017User4296
Mitschigua 12, Mitschigua System Imperial Space
February 3302
My knees buckled as I slid down the door, the strength suddenly gone from my legs. There was a noise behind me, but I couldn't quite make it out.
I looked down. The flight suit covering my left shoulder was mostly shredded, revealing the bloody hole that now existed there. I felt myself pitch left, rotating as I fell, and found myself face down on the deck.
The sound was louder now, more intense. I willed myself to look back down the corridor from my new home on the floor. The female technician was wrestling with the remaining soldier near the stairwell that led to the cargo bay. Of course, "wrestling" was a loose term for it - he held a rifle in one hand, and the other arm was busy trying to fend off his assailant.
My senses were slowly starting to return, and I shook my head a few times to clear the fog. "Verity!" I mumbled, hoping I was loud enough for her to hear me.
"Yes, commander?" her voice echoed through the ship, causing the two combatants to pause for a moment and look around.
"Deactivate the floor," I said next. I moved my arms beneath me - or tried to, anyway, as a jolt of excruciating pain exploded from the bullet wound. My right arm was alone beneath me, and I hadn't quite mastered the one-handed push up yet.
It turned out it didn't matter - the three of us in the corridor were suddenly weightless, the magnetic attraction that kept our boots fixed to the floor now deactivated. The technician used the opportunity to try and latch onto the soldier's rifle, and he, in turn, was trying to both hold onto it and separate her from it at the same time.
Do you have a plan? I thought.
"Not really," I answered myself, and pushed myself off the floor with my good arm, before driving off the airlock door with my legs, pushing my weightless form down the corridor and toward the fight.
The technician had the rifle tucked under one arm now, and suddenly drove both feet into the soldier's midsection. He let out a cough and doubled over, letting go of the rifle, and she floated off into the stairwell.
I floated in then, in what was very likely the saddest charge in all of fighting history. I weakly collided with him, and wrapped my good arm around his midsection. He turned to face me, and began trying to push me away, mixing in a punch or two.
"What are you waiting for?" I shouted. "Shoot him already!"
I managed to pull my feet underneath me and looked up as I saw - mostly felt - a round fly past the solder's head. He turned, and I felt him tense, likely preparing to head toward the stairs-
A second shot rang out, and the soldier suddenly went limp as the round pierced his forehead, travelling through his brain. I let go of him then and let his lifeless body hang there, droplets of blood suspended in the air around the wound like a terrible still-unlife painting.
"Verity, turn the floor back on," I said, before realizing how bad of an idea that was. The solder's body and I crashed together to the floor, my partially mangled shoulder bearing some of the impact.
"Oh my god! Are you okay?!" the technician shouted, evidently having made a graceful landing on the staircase. The rifle clattered to the stairs and slid down them, out of sight, as she ran over to me.
"I think I've been shot," I managed. She nodded before turning and disappearing down the staircase. She reappeared moments later, clutching a medkit.
"How... how did you know I wasn't going to shoot you?" she asked as she set about tending to my shoulder.
"I didn't," I offered weakly, letting out a laugh that turned into a groan. "Why'd you do it? Grab his gun, I mean?"
There was a long pause. "I... don't work for them. Tucker was planning on hiring us after this job. A test, I guess."
"Looks like you failed," I said, eliciting a laugh from the both of us. I paused. "Where's Tucker now?"
She looked away. "He's in the cargo bay. He's... well, you'll see."
I nodded. "You got a name?"
"Sidra."
"Pleasure's all mine, miss. After all, you just saved my life. Twice."
***
Several moments later, I slowly walked into the cargo bay. Between the painkillers and Sidra's field bandage, the room wasn't spinning anymore when I tried to walk.
Tucker was sitting in front of the pod, staring at it. Sidra and I slowly approached.
"What's in the pod, Tucker?' I asked.
He slowly turned to look at me. "Does it matter now? It's all over..."
I shook my head. "I need you to focus, Tucker. What's in the pod?"
"Some kind of experiment," Sidra offered. "They wouldn't tell us what."
"It's a life pod," I said. I turned to look at the pod for a moment, then looked back at Tucker. "You said you needed to open it soon. What's wrong?"
Tucker dropped his face into his hands. "The crash - something happened to it. The backups are failing. But it doesn't matter anymore now, anyway."
I turned toward Sidra, "Can you open it?"
She sized up the pod. "I think so. Give me a second." She moved around to one side of the pod, opened a panel, and set to work.
I knelt down next to Tucker, wincing slightly as I did so. "Was this your project?"
His eyes met mine. "My project? Oh God, no..."
"What were you doing?"
"We... We wanted to push the human body to new heights. Genetic mods and implants already allow higher than normal functioning in humans, but we wanted to go further." Tucker was shaking now. "Test subjects..."
I stood. "Test subjects?"
Tucker nodded. "I don't know where they all came from. We bought slaves for some of the testing. I don't know where the others -"
"Got it!" Sidra yelled. "If we're doing this, we need to do it now - the life support system is failing!"
I looked down at Tucker. "Which one was this? Slave, or...?"
He didn't respond, his gaze now firmly locked on the pod.
"Let's see what you were doing, shall we?" I nodded at Sidra, "Open it."
The pod let out a loud beep before the darkened window that ran the length of the pod suddenly separated, releasing a burst of steam. The window lifted out of the way as the bed inside the pod lifted to reveal the occupant.
It was a young girl, about 19 or 20. She was nude, except for the long blue hair that flowed over her shoulders.
Blue hair, I thought. Shit.
An uncomfortable silence fell over the room, which was still aside from a rotating red light at the head of the pod. The three of us stared at the new arrival.
She opened her eyes… And screamed.