Soul of a Gambler

Part XVII - "Nobody Is Expendable"

"Arna!"

"No!"

"Arna, you're safe, you're fine!"

"Go away! Get away from me!"

"Arna, if we don't get back to the bridge we're gonna' die!"

Arna Deridet had scrambled backwards like a startled spider who had suddenly been bathed in bright light. Her dark hair hung in a disheveled mess over her face, obscuring eyes that streamed with tears. She kept one shaking hand extended firmly outwards to prevent Jax from coming any closer.

"Arna, this is ridiculous! I saved you, he was gonna' kill us both!"

"Shut up!" She barked, her voice amplified in the first truly peaceful silence to settle aboard the ship. She choked back an involuntary sound half between a cough and a sob, "You wanted to kill me too, Jax. I saw you, I saw you pointing that gun at me don't even lie."

The worst part about all of this, the mutiny, the takeover, the battle, and now the escape, is that he really did save her. It might have only been one person, but if nothing else it proved to him that he wasn't the monster he thought he was. It meant he could save another. It meant he could save himself.

"You were going to kill me to save yourself. I know you, Jax."

Jax shook his head and dropped Triple Regret to the floor. He turned to leave for the bridge and Rocky came in from the level below. The golem stood silently as he always did, letting the context of the situation dictate the way that Jax and Arna would formulate their individual ideas of how he might reply. Arna got to her feet with startling speed, tripping over one of Four-Arms' splayed out limbs and catching herself on her sprint to Rocky's side.

The beast of stone put a single rust-colored arm over her like a protective father, and stared at Jax. The Outlaw took a few wild guesses at the kind of derisive and lecturing statements a barely-sentient rock man could make toward him, like a statue of a disappointed parent.

"Warning! Blackwatch Destroyer opening fire!" The AI shouted for the first time in a long time, just before the ship was thrown downward and sent slowly listing from the imparted force of the sudden volley of rapid shots.

"Hull integrity at thirty-nine percent! Retreat advised!"

Jax shoved past them and made a break for the elevator. Maybe if he saved them again, he reckoned, he could prove to them what he had finally proven to himself. He closed the doors of the elevator and got one last look at Arna crying into the dusty rock that made up the ever-silent guardian.

"Hey, whatever your name is," He said to the speaker at the top of the elevator car, "AI gal."

"Yes, captain?"

Captain. He thought to himself. Captain Jax, that's a new one.

"Raise the shields and get me a status report on the EMP."

There was silence for a while, followed by a deep electric buzz. The elevator doors slid open to the hallway to the bridge, which was littered with the bodies of conscript, Blackwatch, and Krazoran alike. There was space for Jax to make a joke about how 'we all die the same', but he wasn't feeling like comedy. 

"Shields online! The electromagnetic pulse weapon is at ninety percent charge. Estimated completion time at current power drain is nineteen minutes."

He stepped over the bodies around the captain's chair and felt the knife of sorrow briefly cut across his lower gut. Marten had been shot at his post, but he left something behind. Jax pulled Marten's corpse from the seat and laid it out as nicely as possible next to the navigation computer and looked at the soldier's final work.