The Edge Of Space

Chapter 15 - Rest after the fight.

Merca moved as fast as the pulse drive could take her, speeding between stars and asteroids with ease.

"You die on me I'll kill you both!" She screamed.

"Merca... Viper Boost button. On the console next to the ignition drive. Input the place, thingy, and push it," he said coughing.

"You mean the coordinates?" She guessed.

"Yeah," he winced.

She did so and pressed a button with the word "viper" engraved on it and the ship suddenly shot into controlled hyperspeed, arriving at base in seconds. Once there she landed quickly and jumped out.

"I need help! Please!" She yelled.

After several moments Vontaine and Fritz were loaded into medical beds and taken into the med bay.

"Thank you Yida, they would be dead by now without you," Merca said sitting in the med bay next to Fritz and Vontaine's medical beds. Zen was curled up in her lap and she patted him gently.

"It's no trouble, after all, you've done a lot for us," Yida replied looking down at Vontaine.

He had bandages covering his entire body, with sedatives and painkillers being injected into his arm. Zen looked over at Vontaine and whimpered at the sight of him.

"He'll be OK, don't worry,' she said reassuringly.

"Things are going good here though, Grem is in charge now and I'm his second in command," Yida continued.

"Really? I'm glad he's alive!" Merca smiled, making Zen a little happier too.

"Yeah, we wanted him to get a prosthetic but he learned something from Vontaine. He's used his Carnevaki abilities to make another leg" He explained.

"That's cool. You guys going on another expedition?" She asked.

"Well yeah actually. Grem is organizing one now but he knows that you're back. He wants to see you both when Vontaine is awake, how did Vontaine get this damaged anyway? Our scans indicated severe muscle tearing, well... everywhere"...

After a moment she responded, "I'm not sure,".

"What do you mean?"...

"Well... I know what happened physically, but... no clue what happened mentally for him," she started.

"I know it wasn't Vonty. That's for sure. Vonty usually tells me to just incapacitate someone, not kill them... I usually don't listen to him, because I'll kill someone if their goal is to kill me but... the way he fought this time, I've never seen him like it before," she started.

......................HOUR'S AGO........................

Merca watched on in horror as Vontaine activated the full suit.

"Ehhhhhahaha, I'm back out aye!?" His voice sounded, although it didn't sound like him. It sounded malevolent.

"What?" Verilik said in confusion.

"Never mind big man," he said before standing to full height.