Scenes From Space

Chapter Forty-Three: An Ending

With the ship topsy turvy and on the ground. The shields went down to allow people to leave via the escape ports.

"Graham, destroy the ship, don't aim for the soldiers though, Kuzzon wants his people to live," I said.

"Jein, report." Kuzzon said.

"Shoot deployed, correctly. Headed towards the ground," Jein answered.

Soldiers ran from the ship in all directions. Every blast of energy from Graham, made a smoldering hole in the Collective's vessel. Pieces started on fire and broke away from the ship.

Graham made another sweep of blasts and flew over towards us. I watched as he landed safely and smiled.

"You have been a pain," a voice hissed. Kuzzon jolted and turned away from the wreckage. I turned away from Graham.

Commander Zymerian stood tall, proud, ugly, and unfortunately, only moderately injured. He raised his gun and locked onto Kuzzon confidently, both hands clutching at his weapon. And well, he wanted me alive.

I stepped in front of Kuzzon.

"You'll have to kill me, if you want to kill the Prince," I said to Zymerian. Yeah, this was going to work. Or at least stall.

"Excuse me?" Zymerian responded. All four eyes were squinting at me. His arms fell to his sides.

"Fuck, Gwen, no," Graham shouted. And yeah, that was a fair response. He jogged over to our standoff, shaking.

"Uh, what they said," Ben agreed, as he joined the show. There was a mild look of disappointment on his face. But there was absolutely zero surprise, just exasperation. Which, again, was fair.

I bumped the thigh holster back into Kuzzon's leg. Desperately hoping that he would pick up on the brainwaves, and the motion. Here's hoping we were drift compatible.

"I mean, the Prince and I really bonded while he held me captive, and he's had the opportunity to kill me several times over and hasn't. He seems like a good dude, who deserves to live." I held my hands up in the air and leaned my hip back into Kuzzon once more. Just to really hint at the 'hey here's a gun' I was trying to imply.

"Very well then," Zymerian replied. He held his right arm out and I had a brief moment to think, 'that's not how you shoot a gun' before-

There was an arm around my waist.

There was a bang in my left ear.

There was a jesusfuckingchrist burn in my left shoulder.

Kuzzon and I fell to the ground. I bounced off his chest and rolled to the side. I sat up. Kuzzon pulled the bullet out of his peck. My shoulder had slowed the bullet immensely.

I met Kuzzon's eyes as he clutched the bullet between two fingers, damp with both our blood.

"Thank you," he said.

"Yeah, you're welcome," I responded. I looked back and Zymerian was dead. Kuzzon had shot him in the forehead. The bullet wound was the same color as his four, still open eyes.

Fuuuuuuuuck. I had come a little close to actually dying there. I started to search the vest for med supplies, opening every pocket. I pulled out a square gauze pack, unwrapped it, and pressed the sterile cloth against Kuzzon's chest. I pulled tape out of another pocket and ripped it with my teeth to press the gauze down. I repeated the process to tape the other side of the gauze and Kuzzon stopped my shaking hands. Shit, when did my hands start shaking? Kuzzon pulled the supplies from me and dressed my shoulder.