Fiction Friday is here. This is the final part of the Outpost story. An escape pod, in case Eve fiction is not your thing, is here to Malefactor regarding the future of the Blogpack and Eve Bloggers website.
The Outpost - Part 6
Sakuri was sat in the main chamber with the rest of the Uneffected thinking about the Captain. He had left with five of their men to get the power-core back to the ship. They would then power up the ship and fly it around to the lower reactor room. That was what had been behind the crates, an old airlock. It was an old style solution to any reactor emergency, vent the room into space. She had been left behind on the insistence of the Uneffected. She was the guarantee that the captain would come back to rescue them.
She had been talking to a woman who was making a vegetable stew for the journey. She was amazed at the ingenuity of the people here. A large pot was suspended under a fusion cutting torch set on its lowest setting which was feeding off the power supply. With no other fuel supply, the Uneffected had to be creative.
Whilst she chopped carrots the woman explain how she'd lost her husband and son in an attack by the Others several years before. Both had been killed defending the main chamber. Sakuri guessed the woman was in her early 40's, making any son probably late teens. A tragedy for her. She explained how the rest of the Uneffected had support those who had lost loved ones and helped her through the dark months that followed.
"And here I am. I am now a cook for my new family which is every......." suddenly the woman blinked and went quiet.
"Are you OK?" Sakuri asked concerned.
"Did you think you could escape your destiny?" the woman replied in a menacing tone.
"I'm sorry?" Sakuri looked confused.
"He will still have you. I will also get my prize. All you have done is doomed these people earlier."
"I don't understand. What are you talking about."
"Do you want me to show you?"
The woman stood up from the rock she was sitting on facing Sakuri. Thats when Sakuri noticed the sharp knife in her hand. The woman lifted her top and exposed her stomach to Sakuri who watched in horror was the woman stabbed herself and worked the knife across her belly. Sakuri screamed.
"See. This one is too old. No use to us. Dry." the woman was talking about herself in the 3rd person as she pulled the knife out and plunged her hand into the gaping would. Sakuri thought she would throw up. The woman pulled her hand out, in it was a fist full of intestines.
"I'll be seeing you soon" the woman said before she blinked again. Suddenly her face turned to one of surprise and confusion. She looked at the horror on Sakuri face and was about to speak as she looked down and saw her bloodied hand full of her own entrails. She screamed and collapsed on the ground and start to convulse. Her bloodied entrails continued to slip from the wound.
"Yes we are going to have so much....." Mayu suddenly stopped and staggered backwards, a look of absolute shock on her face. Sakuri suddenly felt control of her body return. She immediately punched the mutant in the face knocking her backwards. There was a ripping sound as she hit the floor and the tip of the short sword erupted from her chest. The mother was stood the other side. Her arms still outstretched from where she had plunged the sword into the mutants back.
"Come on!" cried Sakuri as she waved them towards a corridor.
She looked back and saw all was lost, the Yukali were now feasting on the bodies of the fallen as the trio quietly slipped out of the cavern.
-o0o-
The two women and the boy ran down the stairs down to the reactor room. Sakuri knew it was only a matter of time before the mutants realised one of their leaders was dead and that some of the Uneffected had escaped.
They entered the reactor room to find the captain standing there. The rows of cargo crates had been pushed aside revealing the airlock.
"Your carriage awaits my friends" he said "The 13:44 mini-shuttle to the starship Hope will be departing in one minute." he smiled.
Sakuri quickly explained what had happened and that the mother and son were the last of the Uneffected. The Captain nodded solemly and told them to get on the shuttle.
The three started to move towards the airlock when the Captain froze, he appeared stiff and unable to move. "Run" he hissed through clenched teeth. "Run!".
Sakuri realised what was happening and dragged the mother and the boy through the airlock into the small shuttle. The small runabout was designed for getting to places where the Hope couldn't and was cramped at the best of times. It had to be small in order to fit inside the Hope's tiny docking bay. It was designed for two but the three squeezed in as Sakuri looked back from the hatch. She mutter under her breath when Sabu casually strolled into the reactor room.
"Ah Captain! Here you are! I thought you'd escaped. I assume those I saw running into the room behind you include my bride-to-be? I've never been here but as we're so deep I'm willing to bet thats a dead-end room? Mmmmm? No way out?"
"Frack you!"
"Now, now Captain. Don't be like that. You'll be seeing some action too, although after assaulting and knocking my sister out, I doubt you'll be screaming in pleasure. She did mention something about going on top of you whilst slowly skinning you alive."
"Well there are two problems with that." the Captain hissed.
"Oh really?" replied Sabu "And what would they be?"
"Firstly, your bitch of a sister is dead."
Anger flashed in the mutants eyes, his lip turning up slightly in the faintest of snarls.
"And secondly, as your powers are not all consuming and I know I still have a little movement in my fingers, I can do this!"
Suddenly the hatch of the shuttle closed forcing Sakuri to jerk her head back to avoid being hit. The shuttle shook as the engines started to power up. A loud drone reverberated around the reactor room.
Sabu scowled at the Captain who forced a smile. The Captains hand was willed out of his pocket. In his hand was a small remote.
"What have you done?" hissed the mutant.
"I've saved two women and a young boy in exchange for my life, your life and the lives of the rest of your depraved mutants!"
Sabu looked towards the door where he'd seen the others vanish and suddenly realised it was an airlock.
"NO!" screamed the mutant.
There was a massive rush of air as the shuttle, running on a predetermined flight pattern activated by the captains remote, separated from the airlock without closing the airlock door. The Captain and Sabu were blown into the vacuum of space as the entire old station started to de-pressurised.
-o0o-
The flight back to the ship around the outside of the outpost took only a few minutes. Sakuri was being comforted by the mother and son. The shuttle followed its previous flight and was soon docked back with the Hope which was now fully powered with the reactor back online.
Sakuri went up to the cockpit. She'd had some lessons in flying but was wondering how she was going to get them all out of there. She found a scrap of paper on the pilots seat.
With a tear in her eye Sakuri smiled and went to the salvage console.
-o0o-
Daichi was sat in the barren room. His prison exercise shirt was sleeveless and the air-conditioning was uncomfortable. Even the table and chairs were a dull grey metal. The door opened and a suited man entered.
"Hello Daichi I am your State appointed attorney." the man stated "You are charged with treason against the State. I think we can trade the death penalty for a possible life sentence in a maximum security penal colony if we cooperate with the authorities. I have to be honest, things are not looking good for you."
Daichi slumped onto the table and held his hands to his face sobbing at the raw truth.
"Couldn't you have said that a bit more tactfully! I didn't do anything!" he protested. "I faked those database entries and transmissions to frame an ex-girlfriend! It was just revenge after that bitch slept with my sister! I wasn't selling secrets to anyone, I was trying to frame that filthy bitch!"
Behind the one-way mirror a man in a very expensive suit turned to Sakuri and raised a questioning eyebrow at her.
"His sister?" the man asked.
"I caught him red-handed with two hookers first." she shrugged.
The man simply nodded and went back to looking into the room where Daichi was confessing all.
"Well Miss Sakuri I think I can safely say that all charges will be dropped against you." the man stated. "Now if we could move onto, shall we say, official business matters? The partial data you sent us?" he continued.
"Very well." Sakuri replied not taking her eyes off her sobbing ex-boyfriend. "I want 50 million credits plus 5% of profits directly as a result of the research for the next 20 years."
"Two percent." the man replied.
"Three." she countered.
"Agreed."
The man took a datapad and entered the figures into a previously prepared contract. Both entered their respective thumbprint and two minutes later Sakuri got a confirmation on her own datapad that the contract had been received by her own independent legal team. She reached into a pocket and pulled out a smaller datapad. She entered a passcode to unlock the security and passed it to the Executive.
"Everything is on a ship called The Hope. It's a salvage frigate docked in the orbiting station. In the cargo hold you'll find the salvage which I sent you the teaser specifications for last week."
"Excellent. Our research team have been dying to get their hands on it since you sent us the partial data. Do you know what it is?" he asked quizzically.
"Not exactly." she replied "But given what I know I'd guess its a type of Sleeper Drone. What you don't know is I found it at a Caldari outpost that had been abandoned for over 150 years. They were firing nukes into a partially stable wormhole that they had found. That thing came out of the wormhole and almost totalled the station. All co-ordinates are saved in The Hopes navicom. There is a another full specimen in the station. Knock yourself out."
The Executive smiled. "Yes, Sleeper tech, that is what our R&D guys reported. However, it is a form of Sleeper tech we have not yet encountered. The Capsuleers have brought back much salvage from the unknown before, but nothing like this." The Executive paused.
"You're an intelligent lady. You surely must know you could have got us in a bidding war with a rival mega-corp and made a lot more money. Instead you wanted your name cleared, 50 million and, to be quite honest, a low share in the profits. Why didn't you go for more?"
Sakuri nodded in agreement whilst watching her ex-boyfriend cry like a baby, protesting his innocence.
"I've had enough problems with escalation over the last few years. Your payment is more than enough so that I'll never need to work again and we've been able to sort this without any issues. You get a bargin, I get just exactly what I want and need."
The Executive nodded, bowed and turned to leave.
"Oh. Have you any special requests with regard to your ex-partner there?" he asked with his hand on the door. "The life sentence can easily be enacted if you would like?"
"No thank you. I'm not that vindictive. I assume his high-flying career is finished. If you could arrange it so he has a short stay in prison for trying to frame me alongside some rather overly-friendly, hardened criminals, then I think we'll be even, given what he has put me through over the last three years."
The executive nodded slightly with a hint of a grin and left the room.
-o0o-
....One year later.....
She stood on the balcony looking down at the secluded beach. It was morning and the sun was already warm, a light breeze blew off the sea and fluttered the curtains behind her. The green nebula that dominated the night sky this close to the centre of the Federation was fading fast, being replaced by a light blue. She looked back and saw her man still asleep on the plush king-sized bed. She thought she'd let him sleep a while longer. He deserved the rest. Thinking back to last night and the reason he was still tired brought a smile to her face. She turned back down to look at the private beach. She saw the young boy running at the edge of the breaking surf. His mother not far behind. They usually walked along the beach before breakfast.
All of their lives had changed radically in the last year. She smiled thinking that change was not on the agenda now, in fact the only thing that had changed recently had been her hair colour. The money, the house, the lifestyle. She had ensured the future would be a happy one for them all. Sakuri also thought about the old crew. The loss of the captain and the others. But also of the joy when she received a picture of Hiroto and Chan. They had both been sealed in the medical bay in the old station when it de-pressurised. The Mega-Corp science team that arrived a few days later had found them. They had been patched up, paid off and last she heard were living the easy life somewhere in the Matari Republic, far from whatever they had been running from on The Hope.
A small shout caught her attention, the boys dog which she hadn't seen before appeared out of the surf with a stick in its mouth. The boy quickly retrieved it and threw it into the sea again, the dog bounding after it.
"Well they are working up an appetite for breakfast." she thought.
Sakuri turned back towards the bedroom. Her lover of the past four months was still stretched out on the bed asleep.
"Working up an appetite for breakfast? I suppose that's not a bad idea." she whispered to herself. She walked back into the bedroom and stood at the end of the bed. She gave it a slight kick. He opened his eyes and blinked before smiling at Sakuri.
"And what do you think you are doing beautiful?" he asked.
"Thinking about breakfast" she giggled as she lowered herself onto him "I think we have about 15 minutes to work up an appetite before they get back."
The End.
The Outpost - Part 6
Sakuri was sat in the main chamber with the rest of the Uneffected thinking about the Captain. He had left with five of their men to get the power-core back to the ship. They would then power up the ship and fly it around to the lower reactor room. That was what had been behind the crates, an old airlock. It was an old style solution to any reactor emergency, vent the room into space. She had been left behind on the insistence of the Uneffected. She was the guarantee that the captain would come back to rescue them.
She had been talking to a woman who was making a vegetable stew for the journey. She was amazed at the ingenuity of the people here. A large pot was suspended under a fusion cutting torch set on its lowest setting which was feeding off the power supply. With no other fuel supply, the Uneffected had to be creative.
Whilst she chopped carrots the woman explain how she'd lost her husband and son in an attack by the Others several years before. Both had been killed defending the main chamber. Sakuri guessed the woman was in her early 40's, making any son probably late teens. A tragedy for her. She explained how the rest of the Uneffected had support those who had lost loved ones and helped her through the dark months that followed.
"And here I am. I am now a cook for my new family which is every......." suddenly the woman blinked and went quiet.
"Are you OK?" Sakuri asked concerned.
"Did you think you could escape your destiny?" the woman replied in a menacing tone.
"I'm sorry?" Sakuri looked confused.
"He will still have you. I will also get my prize. All you have done is doomed these people earlier."
"I don't understand. What are you talking about."
"Do you want me to show you?"
The woman stood up from the rock she was sitting on facing Sakuri. Thats when Sakuri noticed the sharp knife in her hand. The woman lifted her top and exposed her stomach to Sakuri who watched in horror was the woman stabbed herself and worked the knife across her belly. Sakuri screamed.
"See. This one is too old. No use to us. Dry." the woman was talking about herself in the 3rd person as she pulled the knife out and plunged her hand into the gaping would. Sakuri thought she would throw up. The woman pulled her hand out, in it was a fist full of intestines.
"I'll be seeing you soon" the woman said before she blinked again. Suddenly her face turned to one of surprise and confusion. She looked at the horror on Sakuri face and was about to speak as she looked down and saw her bloodied hand full of her own entrails. She screamed and collapsed on the ground and start to convulse. Her bloodied entrails continued to slip from the wound.
This snapped Sakuri out of the trance and she realised what was happening! It had been Mayu!
"MUTANTS!" she screamed and barely a second later the cavern erupted in panic. Suddenly several Yukuli crashed into the cavern from one of the side corridors.
Behind them Sakuri could just see Mayu bring up the rear. She was smiling at her.
-o0o-
The men several decks above had got their suits on but the Captain could see there'd be no time for the helmets or completing the pressure checks before the approaching mutants reached them.
"I've got an idea! Slow them down!" he shouted as he rushed to the power core. The Uneffected men grabbed their weapons and charged at the advancing mutants.
The first man drove his spear into the chest of the lead mutant. It roared in protest as the point sank into its flesh but it didn't penetrate the fused ribcage. The staff broke in two and the the man stumbled forward. The mutant grabbed his head in its two oversized hands and lifted him clear off the floor. He struggled and then screamed as the hulking beast squeezed its hands together. There was a crack and the mans head collapsed sending blood, skull fragments and pieces of brain flying.
The captain looked up from behind the power core which he was desperately rewiring. He saw another man have his armed ripped off as he swung his axe but the mutant grabbed him by the wrist. A shower of bright red blood arced from the remains of the mans shoulder. He continued to work on the power-core as the screams rang out in front of him. As he was almost finished he looked up again. The final Uneffected had been caught and two Yukali were fighting over him. One had him by the wrists and the other by the ankles. As they pulled the man let out a chilling scream. In a soft, wet, ripping noise he was pulled in two. The mutants dropped him as he stopped screaming.
"Oi. Pretty boys!" the captain shouted. "Lets dance."
The mutants started towards him as he flicked a switch on the power core and quickly jumped onto a nearby rock. The hum from the core multiplied and bright flashes sparked around the metal grating. The Yukali froze and then started convulsing wildly. Their feet on the tunnel's metal grating and their bulky bodies touching walls, ceiling and pipeways. A minute later the power core went back to standby and the Captain looked at the smoking corpses.
He removed the wiring between the metal grating and the floor and very slowly pushed the power core towards the airlock.
-o0o-
The scene in the main chamer was chaos. The Yukali had attacked in force and had overwhelmed the defenses. A man ran up to Sakuri, his short sword stained with blood.
"I have a plan!" he said excitedly.
"What is it?" ask Sakuri.
"You have lots of babies with my brother" the man laughed as he drew his sword over his neck. The gush of blood sprayed Sakuri in the face and the man dropped to the floor.
"She's teasing me!" Sakuri thought. "She could take control of me and walk me out of here. But these things don't just feed on our flesh. They also feed on our fear, our pain, our suffering."
She saw the boy they originally met in the gardens and his mother cowering behind a rock. She started to move over when a hulking Yukali started in the same direction. Sakuri didn't think about it. She had a hunch and she would test it. She grabbed the short sword from the fallen man and charged at the Yukali that was heading towards the mother and her son.
The blade sank deep into the mutants flesh and it roared in pain. It span round with its talon like fingers raised, ready to gut whoever hurt it. Sakuri just stood there in terror. The rage in the mutants face disappeared in an instant and it adopted a subservient pose and backed off.
"So they understand they are not to hurt me" Sakuri thought.
She continued towards the mother and son as the battle raged around her. Suddenly she froze, the sword dropped from her hands. She couldn't move. She felt a hand on the back of her neck, it moved down her back gently, over her backside and back to her hip. She couldn't do anything. Mayu walked around her until she was facing her.
"So disappointing that our time was cut short." the mutant purred as her hands continued to expore Sakuri's body. "That Captain of yours will be punished of course. Where is he? I cannot see him."
Sakuri couldn't move a muscle to answer.
"Never mind. We'll find him, he will be taken alive and I will have him. Only now what could have been untold pleasure for both of us will be pleasure for me and untold pain for him." she spat. "But us, I have got my brother to agree to us sharing you. It is going to be wonderful."
The mutant placed her hand on Sakuri head and tilted it to one side. She leaned in and ran her tongue up the side of Sakuri's neck before gently biting. She then went to to kiss her. Sakuri resisted and the mutant to her surprise didn't force her body.
"MUTANTS!" she screamed and barely a second later the cavern erupted in panic. Suddenly several Yukuli crashed into the cavern from one of the side corridors.
Behind them Sakuri could just see Mayu bring up the rear. She was smiling at her.
-o0o-
The men several decks above had got their suits on but the Captain could see there'd be no time for the helmets or completing the pressure checks before the approaching mutants reached them.
"I've got an idea! Slow them down!" he shouted as he rushed to the power core. The Uneffected men grabbed their weapons and charged at the advancing mutants.
The first man drove his spear into the chest of the lead mutant. It roared in protest as the point sank into its flesh but it didn't penetrate the fused ribcage. The staff broke in two and the the man stumbled forward. The mutant grabbed his head in its two oversized hands and lifted him clear off the floor. He struggled and then screamed as the hulking beast squeezed its hands together. There was a crack and the mans head collapsed sending blood, skull fragments and pieces of brain flying.
The captain looked up from behind the power core which he was desperately rewiring. He saw another man have his armed ripped off as he swung his axe but the mutant grabbed him by the wrist. A shower of bright red blood arced from the remains of the mans shoulder. He continued to work on the power-core as the screams rang out in front of him. As he was almost finished he looked up again. The final Uneffected had been caught and two Yukali were fighting over him. One had him by the wrists and the other by the ankles. As they pulled the man let out a chilling scream. In a soft, wet, ripping noise he was pulled in two. The mutants dropped him as he stopped screaming.
"Oi. Pretty boys!" the captain shouted. "Lets dance."
The mutants started towards him as he flicked a switch on the power core and quickly jumped onto a nearby rock. The hum from the core multiplied and bright flashes sparked around the metal grating. The Yukali froze and then started convulsing wildly. Their feet on the tunnel's metal grating and their bulky bodies touching walls, ceiling and pipeways. A minute later the power core went back to standby and the Captain looked at the smoking corpses.
He removed the wiring between the metal grating and the floor and very slowly pushed the power core towards the airlock.
-o0o-
The scene in the main chamer was chaos. The Yukali had attacked in force and had overwhelmed the defenses. A man ran up to Sakuri, his short sword stained with blood.
"I have a plan!" he said excitedly.
"What is it?" ask Sakuri.
"You have lots of babies with my brother" the man laughed as he drew his sword over his neck. The gush of blood sprayed Sakuri in the face and the man dropped to the floor.
"She's teasing me!" Sakuri thought. "She could take control of me and walk me out of here. But these things don't just feed on our flesh. They also feed on our fear, our pain, our suffering."
She saw the boy they originally met in the gardens and his mother cowering behind a rock. She started to move over when a hulking Yukali started in the same direction. Sakuri didn't think about it. She had a hunch and she would test it. She grabbed the short sword from the fallen man and charged at the Yukali that was heading towards the mother and her son.
The blade sank deep into the mutants flesh and it roared in pain. It span round with its talon like fingers raised, ready to gut whoever hurt it. Sakuri just stood there in terror. The rage in the mutants face disappeared in an instant and it adopted a subservient pose and backed off.
"So they understand they are not to hurt me" Sakuri thought.
She continued towards the mother and son as the battle raged around her. Suddenly she froze, the sword dropped from her hands. She couldn't move. She felt a hand on the back of her neck, it moved down her back gently, over her backside and back to her hip. She couldn't do anything. Mayu walked around her until she was facing her.
"So disappointing that our time was cut short." the mutant purred as her hands continued to expore Sakuri's body. "That Captain of yours will be punished of course. Where is he? I cannot see him."
Sakuri couldn't move a muscle to answer.
"Never mind. We'll find him, he will be taken alive and I will have him. Only now what could have been untold pleasure for both of us will be pleasure for me and untold pain for him." she spat. "But us, I have got my brother to agree to us sharing you. It is going to be wonderful."
The mutant placed her hand on Sakuri head and tilted it to one side. She leaned in and ran her tongue up the side of Sakuri's neck before gently biting. She then went to to kiss her. Sakuri resisted and the mutant to her surprise didn't force her body.
She looked back and saw all was lost, the Yukali were now feasting on the bodies of the fallen as the trio quietly slipped out of the cavern.
-o0o-
The two women and the boy ran down the stairs down to the reactor room. Sakuri knew it was only a matter of time before the mutants realised one of their leaders was dead and that some of the Uneffected had escaped.
They entered the reactor room to find the captain standing there. The rows of cargo crates had been pushed aside revealing the airlock.
"Your carriage awaits my friends" he said "The 13:44 mini-shuttle to the starship Hope will be departing in one minute." he smiled.
Sakuri quickly explained what had happened and that the mother and son were the last of the Uneffected. The Captain nodded solemly and told them to get on the shuttle.
The three started to move towards the airlock when the Captain froze, he appeared stiff and unable to move. "Run" he hissed through clenched teeth. "Run!".
Sakuri realised what was happening and dragged the mother and the boy through the airlock into the small shuttle. The small runabout was designed for getting to places where the Hope couldn't and was cramped at the best of times. It had to be small in order to fit inside the Hope's tiny docking bay. It was designed for two but the three squeezed in as Sakuri looked back from the hatch. She mutter under her breath when Sabu casually strolled into the reactor room.
"Ah Captain! Here you are! I thought you'd escaped. I assume those I saw running into the room behind you include my bride-to-be? I've never been here but as we're so deep I'm willing to bet thats a dead-end room? Mmmmm? No way out?"
"Frack you!"
"Now, now Captain. Don't be like that. You'll be seeing some action too, although after assaulting and knocking my sister out, I doubt you'll be screaming in pleasure. She did mention something about going on top of you whilst slowly skinning you alive."
"Well there are two problems with that." the Captain hissed.
"Oh really?" replied Sabu "And what would they be?"
"Firstly, your bitch of a sister is dead."
Anger flashed in the mutants eyes, his lip turning up slightly in the faintest of snarls.
"And secondly, as your powers are not all consuming and I know I still have a little movement in my fingers, I can do this!"
Suddenly the hatch of the shuttle closed forcing Sakuri to jerk her head back to avoid being hit. The shuttle shook as the engines started to power up. A loud drone reverberated around the reactor room.
Sabu scowled at the Captain who forced a smile. The Captains hand was willed out of his pocket. In his hand was a small remote.
"What have you done?" hissed the mutant.
"I've saved two women and a young boy in exchange for my life, your life and the lives of the rest of your depraved mutants!"
Sabu looked towards the door where he'd seen the others vanish and suddenly realised it was an airlock.
"NO!" screamed the mutant.
There was a massive rush of air as the shuttle, running on a predetermined flight pattern activated by the captains remote, separated from the airlock without closing the airlock door. The Captain and Sabu were blown into the vacuum of space as the entire old station started to de-pressurised.
-o0o-
The flight back to the ship around the outside of the outpost took only a few minutes. Sakuri was being comforted by the mother and son. The shuttle followed its previous flight and was soon docked back with the Hope which was now fully powered with the reactor back online.
Sakuri went up to the cockpit. She'd had some lessons in flying but was wondering how she was going to get them all out of there. She found a scrap of paper on the pilots seat.
Hey Sakuri
If you are reading this then 'Plan B' has been used to get you out of there. Just a pity that means I'm dead. Damn fracking mutants. Can you believe this shit? Of all the things in the cluster! It was mutants that ended me! Anyway, the Hope is now yours, the reactors online and she's powered and ready to fly. But make sure you get that coupling looked at as soon as you dock!
The Navicom has been preprogrammed with an autopilot route. I've set it to follow the route we came in on, so that should get you out of one of those holes in the hanger doors. Then the autopilot will get you out via the same stargate and back to the nearest station.
I need to ask you to do one thing for me. Live!
The Capt.
P.S. Remember how those holes were made? Look down!
With a tear in her eye Sakuri smiled and went to the salvage console.
-o0o-
Daichi was sat in the barren room. His prison exercise shirt was sleeveless and the air-conditioning was uncomfortable. Even the table and chairs were a dull grey metal. The door opened and a suited man entered.
"Hello Daichi I am your State appointed attorney." the man stated "You are charged with treason against the State. I think we can trade the death penalty for a possible life sentence in a maximum security penal colony if we cooperate with the authorities. I have to be honest, things are not looking good for you."
Daichi slumped onto the table and held his hands to his face sobbing at the raw truth.
"Couldn't you have said that a bit more tactfully! I didn't do anything!" he protested. "I faked those database entries and transmissions to frame an ex-girlfriend! It was just revenge after that bitch slept with my sister! I wasn't selling secrets to anyone, I was trying to frame that filthy bitch!"
Behind the one-way mirror a man in a very expensive suit turned to Sakuri and raised a questioning eyebrow at her.
"I caught him red-handed with two hookers first." she shrugged.
The man simply nodded and went back to looking into the room where Daichi was confessing all.
"Well Miss Sakuri I think I can safely say that all charges will be dropped against you." the man stated. "Now if we could move onto, shall we say, official business matters? The partial data you sent us?" he continued.
"Very well." Sakuri replied not taking her eyes off her sobbing ex-boyfriend. "I want 50 million credits plus 5% of profits directly as a result of the research for the next 20 years."
"Two percent." the man replied.
"Three." she countered.
"Agreed."
The man took a datapad and entered the figures into a previously prepared contract. Both entered their respective thumbprint and two minutes later Sakuri got a confirmation on her own datapad that the contract had been received by her own independent legal team. She reached into a pocket and pulled out a smaller datapad. She entered a passcode to unlock the security and passed it to the Executive.
"Everything is on a ship called The Hope. It's a salvage frigate docked in the orbiting station. In the cargo hold you'll find the salvage which I sent you the teaser specifications for last week."
"Excellent. Our research team have been dying to get their hands on it since you sent us the partial data. Do you know what it is?" he asked quizzically.
"Not exactly." she replied "But given what I know I'd guess its a type of Sleeper Drone. What you don't know is I found it at a Caldari outpost that had been abandoned for over 150 years. They were firing nukes into a partially stable wormhole that they had found. That thing came out of the wormhole and almost totalled the station. All co-ordinates are saved in The Hopes navicom. There is a another full specimen in the station. Knock yourself out."
The Executive smiled. "Yes, Sleeper tech, that is what our R&D guys reported. However, it is a form of Sleeper tech we have not yet encountered. The Capsuleers have brought back much salvage from the unknown before, but nothing like this." The Executive paused.
"You're an intelligent lady. You surely must know you could have got us in a bidding war with a rival mega-corp and made a lot more money. Instead you wanted your name cleared, 50 million and, to be quite honest, a low share in the profits. Why didn't you go for more?"
Sakuri nodded in agreement whilst watching her ex-boyfriend cry like a baby, protesting his innocence.
"I've had enough problems with escalation over the last few years. Your payment is more than enough so that I'll never need to work again and we've been able to sort this without any issues. You get a bargin, I get just exactly what I want and need."
The Executive nodded, bowed and turned to leave.
"Oh. Have you any special requests with regard to your ex-partner there?" he asked with his hand on the door. "The life sentence can easily be enacted if you would like?"
"No thank you. I'm not that vindictive. I assume his high-flying career is finished. If you could arrange it so he has a short stay in prison for trying to frame me alongside some rather overly-friendly, hardened criminals, then I think we'll be even, given what he has put me through over the last three years."
The executive nodded slightly with a hint of a grin and left the room.
-o0o-
....One year later.....
She stood on the balcony looking down at the secluded beach. It was morning and the sun was already warm, a light breeze blew off the sea and fluttered the curtains behind her. The green nebula that dominated the night sky this close to the centre of the Federation was fading fast, being replaced by a light blue. She looked back and saw her man still asleep on the plush king-sized bed. She thought she'd let him sleep a while longer. He deserved the rest. Thinking back to last night and the reason he was still tired brought a smile to her face. She turned back down to look at the private beach. She saw the young boy running at the edge of the breaking surf. His mother not far behind. They usually walked along the beach before breakfast.
All of their lives had changed radically in the last year. She smiled thinking that change was not on the agenda now, in fact the only thing that had changed recently had been her hair colour. The money, the house, the lifestyle. She had ensured the future would be a happy one for them all. Sakuri also thought about the old crew. The loss of the captain and the others. But also of the joy when she received a picture of Hiroto and Chan. They had both been sealed in the medical bay in the old station when it de-pressurised. The Mega-Corp science team that arrived a few days later had found them. They had been patched up, paid off and last she heard were living the easy life somewhere in the Matari Republic, far from whatever they had been running from on The Hope.
"Well they are working up an appetite for breakfast." she thought.
Sakuri turned back towards the bedroom. Her lover of the past four months was still stretched out on the bed asleep.
"Working up an appetite for breakfast? I suppose that's not a bad idea." she whispered to herself. She walked back into the bedroom and stood at the end of the bed. She gave it a slight kick. He opened his eyes and blinked before smiling at Sakuri.
"Thinking about breakfast" she giggled as she lowered herself onto him "I think we have about 15 minutes to work up an appetite before they get back."
The End.
IMO, this one would work basically work as a movie script (moreso than the previous). It's dark - more horror than action - but there are a few clear characters, easy-to-visualise action, and an interesting story.
ReplyDelete