His Gold Assassin

Part 1

 It had been seventeen days since I had found my way into the small shuttle that barely passed as more than a floating heap of scrap metal in space. With each passing day it became more and more obvious how small the craft was, even for a crew of just one. The ship was a very small transport vessel made for moving in between large ships or for detaching and repairing outer damages. The main room of the ship, albeit the only room of the ship, was large enough to hold a cramped single-chaired cockpit with limited controls, a table for tools which doubled as my bed, and a small chute that was my current method of relieving myself as unpleasant as it was. In no way was this ship meant for any serious travel and I was definitely putting the vessel to the test now by taking it so far away for my mission.

As the seventeenth day started to come to an end and I began to undress for bed, I thought again about what would happen if my plan wasn't successful. There was no mystery or unanswered question. I would be punished both physically and mentally. So going back empty handed wasn't an option for me at this point. As a matter of fact, returning from any mission with any result aside from success was never an option. But I wasn't scared. I had learned very early during my training in the academy that controlling my emotions and how much I felt was a key component to keeping a clear mind during missions. So I restrained my emotions to only be felt when I had absolutely no control over them in such places like my dreams and nightmares.

I shoved on a pair of pants and a shirt that smelled past its prime but there was nothing I could do about the state of my clothes. I had already run out of sanitary wipes three days ago and despite my strict orders to carry out my mission I dared to look for a nearby planet or moon to make a pit stop. It was either that or I would slowly run out of my remaining drinking water and risk dying from dehydration. And funny enough death wasn't an excuse for failing a mission.

Tapping away on the hologram keyboards in front of me, I located a planet a two lightyear away that seemed to have life on the surface. I ran diagnostics on the planet from the ship's database before deciding to pick up a nearby tablet to read from while the computer racked through the countless planets and systems in my portable computer's drive that was currently plugged into the rust bucket. Though this ship had the basic functions for running diagnostics and sorting through information it had nowhere near enough drive storage for the mission I was on so I had to provide my own boost. The only asset I had if I were to be captured-precious knowledge from my planet that didn't like sharing their hard earned information.

On my planet of Aurum there were certain skills I was taught from a young age that differed from the natives of the planet. Aliens such as myself were expected to be able to excel in every subject. Failing was never something taken lightly and I often found my classmate numbers dwindling as some were disposed of for failing too many times. There was no room on my planet for disappointment or failure of any kind and the aliens like me who were given a home on Aurum were no exception to this rule.

From as early as I could remember I knew how to read, write, and code faster than any native Aurum. A select few of us aliens, the best of the best, were then selected to learn more skills and trades that would advance us. We were to become their most elite and yet private branch of the military. Phantoms in space.

Thinking of the training that I endured everyday at the academy, I instinctively reached a hand down to my right side and felt one of the many weapons strapped to the outside of my right thigh. My fingers itched to let loose a few bullets but I knew that doing that in this piece of lurd spacecraft was asking for a death sentence. I thirsted for the sting of fighting again despite the bitter memories that my childhood training had given me. Unlike some at the academy, I was not under any impression that Aurum's generals that lead the academies were our saviors. I knew early on that we were being tortured and stripped from all pleasures life had to offer all for the mere glory and stability in return. Their mistake was letting me go on missions from an early age and be allowed to witness how other planets and species treated their warriors. On Aurum you are nothing if not replaceable once you fail.