Filthy Dirty Creature
01 Jan 2018Kodeyne
"Filthy, dirty creature!"Kodeyne was curled up in the central corridor of Devil's Daydream, arms wrapped around her legs, head down. Blood oozed from the deep cuts on her right bicep.
"Filthy, dirty, useless!"
She wanted to cry but it wouldn't happen. She'd only stopped drinking because the bottle was empty and she definitely wasn't venturing out into the starport.
"Filthy, dirty, vile, useless creature!"
As the days had passed, she had brooded more and more about that party on Obsidian Orbital. Her rational side tried to tell her, shit happens, no-one else would remember the events of that night, more to the point no-one would care.
Except her. Guilt and loathing consumed her soul and she wanted oblivion....
Blood was drying on her skin. She shook, realising how cold she was. Slowly uncurling, wincing and moaning as stiff, cramped limbs tried to respond. She half-crawled back towards her cabin, finally hauling herself upright on the doorframe. The medkit yielded antiseptic wipes and spray skin.
The mirror. Red eyes in an ashen face looked back. A long, shuddering, breath. Forcing herself to put the Remlok back on felt like the hardest thing she'd ever had to do.
The suit clicked softly as it measured her temperature and the heater circuits came on. She made her unsteady way to the cockpit and sat down. Gazed out at the walls of the hangar, drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair.
"Come on girl, shake a leg. Do something, anything!" Her voice sounded ragged and echoed in the Asp's roomy cockpit. "Go look at something for the hell of it. Forget about your bank balance for a few hours." She leaned back, trying to remember something. Something the enigmatic TR had said once. Something about....
Neutron star. That was it. Breath in, breath out, turned to the terminal and began hunting for her prey. It took a few minutes but a system not even that far away had the goods. One hundred and fifty light years...no distance at all for an AspEx with a modded drive. She brought up the nav screen and set a course. Settled back into the chair and brought the ship to life, the pad heaving upwards into the haze-filled docking bay.
*
Jackson's Lighthouse. She'd had to fly a few LS further away to see it all at once. Devil's Daydream hung in the void and Kodeyne just gazed, hands over her mouth, tears of release bobbing away in zero-g, each tiny sphere glittering in the light of the dancing star.
"Thank you, universe..."
Perhaps she would put oblivion off for a little longer.