Dia kept tossing and turning in bed, a series of images repeating in her mind in slow motion. It was always the same scene: a metal door closing and those inhuman red eyes looking at her, reminding her why she was alive, whose life she had to destroy to survive.
She was dripping with perspiration when she woke up, dizzy and lost like she couldn't understand where she was, unable to recognize the dark room around her and even less that bed, too soft and comfortable compared with the hard bunk where she used to sleep.
But the worst part was she didn't wake up on her own, someone else did. The plinky noise of the door buzzer was still ringing in her ears, prolonged and annoying as much as her alarm clock on the Siren when she opened her eyes.
"Light" She croaked and then squinted when the round spotlights went on. The light was too bright for her eyes like she had been in the dark for a long time and she wasn't used to it.
She was still trying to adapt when the door buzzer rang for the second time.
Whoever was on the other side, patience wasn't one of his virtues.
Dia walked across the room before pushing the door's button, finding herself face-to-face with someone she didn't recognize, not at the start at least. It was Omen. He looked bigger in the camouflage tactical armor he was wearing, imposing and dangerous even without a gun.
"We are about..." He started to say, his blue eye widening slightly as he looked down at her.
And that's when Dia became aware she was only wearing her space jumpsuit. She winced, and it took all her training to stay where she was. She was used to the stares of men, but the intensity in Omen's gaze was anything but common.
"What is it?" She asked, snappy like usual when she woke up. A close encounter with another strange man was the last thing she wanted at the moment.
Omen blinked, slowly looking up at her face. He fixed his arms at the side like he was standing at attention, that deeply ingrained movement a little woody, as if he was trying to use the habit of life to divert his attention.
"Change your clothes, corporal." He said, his tone stiff. "We are about to land." He ordered with the
tone of someone used to command, no much different from the way his old captain talked to her.
Dia was about to salute when she realized the man in front of her wasn't her superior officer, and she wasn't in the Navy. Not anymore.
"Land? Where to?" She asked.
But apparently, avoiding to give answers was a habit for the men in this ship.
"You uniform is in the cabinet. You have ten minutes to change" Omen said before leaving the room.
Great. Just what I need, another asshole. But then she frowned. Wait. Did he just say uniform?
She thought before searching for the cabinet Omen had talked about and finding it near a corner of the room. The uniform inside had the same design of that she used to wear on the Siren, minus the color, black and blue instead of the imperial red.
An imperial uniform on a Syndicate's ship? Dia shook her head while she put it on. The entire situation was getting weirder and weirder. Moreover, the uniform fit her perfectly like
it was tailor-made for her and Reyes, or whoever chose it, knew exactly her size.
My new size.
Of course in the great scheme of things, not to mention what happened to her lately, everything else seemed unimportant.
She tried not to think about it and left the room, discovering Omen was waiting for her outside.
He started walking as soon as she came out like he expected her to follow. Which she did, of course, though the entire situation was starting to annoy her to no end.
But she grinned and bore it like she had done so far, following him through a hallway and then into another until they reached a turbolift. Along the way, an uncomfortable feeling started to take over her, the certainty something was off. And then she understood what it was.
No windows.
In the room where she'd slept, the sickbay when she'd woke up or the hallway she was walking now: no windows anywhere. Dia's breath quickened, and she started to feel her chest tightening.
She was used to seeing the stars, that blackness of space outside the reinforced glass of her ship, but there was none of that here. Dia tried to stay calm, but when the elevator started going up, she couldn't take it anymore.
"Where are we going?"
"The bridge." Omen answered. Dia waited for him to explain, but he didn't.
"And after that? Where are we landing?" She asked, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible, though her annoyance level had already reached a new height.
Omen looked at her briefly, his face expressionless and completely different from what she saw when she opened the door.
"You'll know soon enough." He said to her, a cryptic answer that did nothing but increase her exasperation.
She was about to come out with some biting remark when the turbolift opened, and those words died in her throat. The bridge on the other side of the door wasn't big, maybe one-fifth of the Siren's size, but it was different from the rest of the ship: open on three sides like a single window looking out into space.
But what really left her without words was the familiar tunnel, the vague blue vortex laying outside that window. They were traveling in hyperspace.
It's too quiet for that. It was like they weren't moving.
"We are approaching the planet, captain." Someone said. A woman. She was wearing that same blue and black uniform and standing near a computer station on the left side of the room.
Dia looked around the bridge, noticing half dozen of stations of the same kind and hardware, a lot of it.
High-end military hardware and...isn't that a TPSC?
The TPSC---acronym for torpedo point system console---was the targeting system used for ionic torpedoes, the most lethal weapon in the imperial's navy arsenal.
However, if this ship was the Nostromus, the same vessel she had seen on that desert planet, it was way too small for that kind of firepower.
Besides, judging from the size of the bridge, it couldn't be more than a corvette-class starship, a vessel known for its maneuverability and generally used to hunt and destroy the enemy fighters and bombers.
What the hell do they need it for? It was like providing an infantryman with a nuclear warhead. It made no sense.
Dia was searching the room for some other clues when she saw him. Reyes.
He wasn't far, sitting with his legs crossed on that chair at the center of the room. The captain's chair.
"Prepare to leave Hyperspace." He ordered. He sounded relaxed, even a little bored.
"Acknowledged. Rerouting energy to the inertial dampers." The woman said, speaking very precisely. Her uniform, attitude, and behavior were in stark contrast with Reyes scruffy look, his brown leather jacket, and laid-back ways. It was odd like seeing a soldier taking orders from a bounty hunter...or a pirate.
"Leaving Hyperspace in 3...2...1. Leaving now." And then they were out, that blue vortex replaced by black space. But there was something else aside from that dull emptiness, a white planet and beyond that a red sun.
"Initiate landing procedures." Reyes ordered.
"Proceeding at impulse. Estimated speed: ten stellar knots. We'll enter the planet's atmosphere in six minutes, thirty-three second and two..."
"Enough, Mitchell." Reyes stopped her.
"Yes...captain." She answered after a pause, maybe a little too long.
That's when Reyes finally realized someone else was in the room.
"Oh, Dia. You're finally awake."
Dia frowned.
"Finally?"
Reyes grinned.
"You slept for sixteen hours straight." He laughed. "But don't worry, you're just in time."
Sixteen hours? What the hell? She never slept more than eight hours a day and lately---thanks to the sarge---even less than that.
"In time for what?" She asked, her irritation leaking into her voice. "Where are we going, Reyes?"
Reyes grin grew wider, and alarm bells started to ring in her head. She had a bad feeling about this.
"But Daxum of course." He said while he looked at her strangely. "You asked me what he wanted from you. Well, you're about to find out."
Dia opened her mouth wide.
Apparently, she was about to meet her payer and she didn't like it.
Not a bit.