Spaced Out

Torture Who You Have To

The cargo bay floor chilled Lily's cheek. She had tried getting up twice and her body refused. It had had enough. Piloting, liquis burns, running and being shot broke the limits of her endurance. Scraping up the dregs of her resolve, she jolted her throbbing legs and they responded, twitching. They wouldn't bend. Knees felt swollen, damaged. The inside of her barriersuit was dry, though, so she wasn't bleeding.

Sounds of combat traveled to her. Liquis fire buzzed in the background. A guttural howl tore over the hum of Striker discharge. Silence followed. The agonized cry could have come from either of the men. Footfalls hammered the cargo bay floor. As they drew near, the tile she lay upon vibrated. Gentle arms looped under her chest and torso.

"You shouldn't have run."

Vlex.

The commander lifted her.

"You shot me," Lily said as he slung her over his armored shoulder.

"On a low setting."

"And Vortrand?" That terrible howl came from the captain. She winced at the thought.

Vlex laughed. "Not so low. I don't believe I killed him, but one does hope."

A welter of confused emotion tightened Lily's chest. With Vortrand she was always in danger, but Vlex wasn't any better, was he? And he was wrong about the captain betraying her to Command. When it counted, the captain had her back. He'd lied to a superior agent to keep her safe. He'd killed that agent to keep her alive. Maybe she should have trusted him.

The scraper had been birthed out of m-layer into the docking claustra. Vlex brought them to the vessel. A touch from the commander opened its entry hatch. He climbed aboard, setting Lily on the floor before leaving her. The ship recognized its master. Interior components came alive at Vlex's presence and the entry hatch hinged shut automatically.

The scraper's interior was carved from a glossy, black material. The commander stood at the center of a cavernous alcove and presided over the controls which weren't regulated to a dedicated dashboard. Within the dark structure surrounding Vlex, thousands of spectral lights appeared like multicolored fireflies winking in the gloom.

The Utori conjured an observation shield from the light speckled blackness. The alcove rearranged itself. Lights within the structure swarmed into constellation clusters bunched at the control alcove's perimeter. Darkness rolled back like breaking fog. The docking claustra peeked through the ship's bleak interior.

Lily, who was heaped where Vlex left her, managed to get herself to a seated position as the commander tore at his slicksuit. Black material ripped from his dull armor and chalky skin in an oily membrane. Shredded strips of the suit plopped wetly onto the floor in quivering mounds. He snapped the dakolite plates protecting his upper half apart. The separated pieces gonged onto the floor, leaving his neck and back naked. Shoulder muscles bunched as he reached for his helmet. The headgear cracked apart like a viscous shell. Dropping both halves atop the rest of his shed gear, he shook himself and let his head and arms hang. For almost a peccard, he stood there, bare from the waist up.