Chapter 18 Angels and Demons

Ozone and smoke filled the stairway as we hunkered against the wall.  I pressed my face against the metal grating trying to get a glimpse of the fighting below.  My vision was partially blocked, but my other senses told the story of the battle raging around us.  The stairwell reverberated with its monstrous heartbeat. Screams mixed with the searing sound of weapons fire gave it a mighty voice.

The odds against Blood Raiders trying to kill us on a station twice were astronomical.  The only logical explanation was Geklov had sold Tasha out in order to get safely off the null sec station.  What else could the coward have offered the Blood Raiders?  Her implant was the perfect way to give the Raiders an unlimited supply of their most holy blood, clone blood.  I had been in such a hurry to save her that I missed all the signs.  When was I going to learn to slow down and think?

“We have to keep moving,” I yelled over the gunfire.

“I think we only have one loop of stairs before the next door,” she replied, pointing down toward the next landing.  “They seem to be more interested in shooting each other than us.”

“That’s because they want you alive.  As soon as one side wins I will be dead and you two will be captured if we don’t get the fuck out of here.”

I stooped low and started working my way down the stairs. Each step felt like a plunge down a mountain.  If I was the only one in danger my heart wouldn't have skipped a beat.  Now I felt responsible for both Tasha’s and Peter’s safety. 

Sweat slid down my face as we rounded the first corner.  The landing was in sight, only one floor away.  As I took another step two Raiders came sprinting past the landing toward us.  Once they saw us they drew their pistols and slowed their advance.

“You going to do something about that Laka?” Tasha challenged me.

“Yeah, I got it under control.”

I wanted both of them as close as possible so my blaster would do the most damage.  It had been a long time since I tested how fast I could draw.  My clone didn’t know that though.  Its senses were as sharp as the day I was first scanned into the database.  One step closer and I would have them.

The battle fell silent around me as the first Raider’s foot stepped into range.  I could hear the soft clang of the sole of his boot as it reverberated up the stairwell.  I watched his pupils dilate and the small beads of sweat slide down the side of his face.  His arm raised and the tendons in his finger crackled as he started the long slow pull that would send a projectile racing toward me. He didn’t know he was already dead.

The first Raider fell as my arm swung to the next.  I pulled the trigger a fraction of a second before the other Raider’s gun let out a flash.  His shot went wide as mine hit him dead in the chest. He fell forward, covering the section of stairs not already occupied by his friend. 

The sound of battle flooded back into my senses.  I could hear the voices of the men below, much closer now.  I continued forward, crawling over the fallen Raiders.  I didn’t look back to see if anyone was following.  I needed to get to the landing where I could attempt to lay down cover fire if one side broke through. 

I could smell burning hair and feel the heat of a laser searing the wall behind me.  I fixed my eyes on the door letting it become the only object that existed in my world.  I took the stairs two at a time and stumbled as my foot came down on the flat landing.  Arms flailing, I danced to the door, turning in time to send a blaster bolt into another Raider as he bound up the stairs.

I strained against the door which opened with a protesting screech.  I peeked through making sure the hall was empty then motioned for Tasha and Peter.  They practically knocked me over in their dash out of the stairwell.  Tasha and I yanked hard on the handle pulling the door closed.  Peter hit the lock and we dashed down the hallway.

We headed deeper into the station to stay away from the more populated areas.  About a half a mile from the stairs was a lift that would take us to the hanger.  We made it in a surprisingly short time considering we were dragging a huffing Peter along with us. 

Thankfully, there was only a short wait at the lift.  I felt some of the tension slip away once we exited into the familiar sounds of the massive hanger.  All we had to do was get in our ships and we were home free.  I rushed to my pod and reached over the side checking the arrangement of the neuroleads so I wouldn’t knock them out of the way when I jumped in. 

“Laka,” Tasha said from behind me.

I turned and Tasha was standing there, one hand holding a now bleeding Peter and the other holding her pistol.  There was a flash of light and a faint smell of smoke.  Then fire ripped into my chest knocking me backwards.  I bounced off my pod then fell to the floor.

I sucked in a breath but could only fill my lungs about a quarter full before I choked on the pain.  My head rolled over and I looked up.  Tasha was standing over me with her smoking gun.  The sound of wheezing gasps filled the air around me as my brain struggled with a foggy realization I had been shot.

“Laka, you are such a bad girl.  If you weren’t so bad maybe security would come help you now.  How many times have I told you to be good?”  She pointed the gun at my head and I closed my eyes.  “Thanks for all the help, baby.  You took care of all the loose ends for me.”

“Hey, stop!” someone yelled as shots ricocheted off my pod. 

I blinked, at least I thought I did, and Tasha was gone.  I could see her in the distance standing outside her shuttle, with what looked like two more Blood Raiders.  They were trying to get a struggling Peter inside the cargo hold.

I tried to move so I could see the wound, but my body wouldn’t cooperate.  The cold floor felt somehow soothing against my skin.  I could see my blood spreading out onto the floor in front of me.  I was going to die on a filthy station floor, at the hands of the only person in the universe I loved.   

It had all been a lie.  With that simple revelation a veil lifted.  All the ways she had hurt me in the past came flooding into my mind.    I felt betrayed, but I could only be angry at myself for trusting her.  It would have been easy to let go and drift away if not for a cool presence inside me that demanded to know why she had done this.   

Getting inside my pod was my only chance to live.  I rolled my head and looked up at the five feet between me and the inside of the pod.  I reached up and put a hand on the small ledge that circled the outside and pulled as hard as I could.  My arm shook as I lifted one, then two feet off the floor.  As I started to grab for the ledge with my other hand a cataclysmic spasm of pain sent me crashing back to the ground.

I landed in a heap, head sinking into a puddle of thick red blood.  I tried to move again, but there was no response from my limbs.  Now all my concentration was being used to breathe.   All I could manage was short breaths; each filled my lungs with fire.  The peaceful realization that I wasn’t going to make it this time fell over me.

It was then I heard the pounding of feet and shouts.  One man passed through my field of vision heading toward Tasha’s shuttle.  Another stopped next to me.  I looked up and decided I had to be dead because he looked like an angel.  

He reached down and picked me up like I was a child.  “Hey beautiful, I’m going to put you in your pod, okay?”

I smiled at him and tried to say thanks, but instead I coughed, sending bloody chunks flying into his face.  I wanted to tell him I was sorry, but the next thing I knew I was already in the pod. All of the leads but the primary interface was connected.

“Listen cutie, I am going to finish plugging you in, but you have got to do the rest from there, okay?” 

He slid in the last lead, and the sensor feed washed over me.  I was in heaven.  My body became a distant ghost, and the pain was an echo.   I needed to hurry because I wasn’t going to make it much longer.  I wasn’t even sure I would make it through undock. 

The pod sealed and I initiated the launch.  I focused on my body making sure I was still breathing.   I strained against the weight of my chest and had to rest between each breath.   My heart was a shallow beat, and my breaths were down to three a minute.

The pod shot out of the docking bay and I initiated the two minute self-destruct sequence.  As I switched my consciousness back to my vitals a cold numbness crept through my mind as I realized I was not going to make it. From the cool displacement of the sensor feed I watched as my organs started shutting down becoming flat lines of data.  My last breath was 30 seconds ago and my heart was about to fail.

The end was almost here and I watched as a ghost in the machine.  At one minute before self-destruct a wave of acceptance washed over me.  The last few years had been hell and I had just been killed by someone I loved.  Finally, I would be able to rest.

The last thing I heard as my heart made one last shuttering squeeze was the sound the target warning going off. 

I guess some care bears do have balls.

Chpater 17 Rock and a Hard Place

I was looking forward to clearing my mind on the long trip to Reche. Tasha however, was not going to allow that. She went on a manic tirade from the time she left the launch tube until the final jump to our destination. It was a sudden overload of information I could have done without.

In a matter of a couple of hours she caught me up on her life as a researcher. It was a dangerous world, much like mine. There were a lot of people that made a living stealing and taking research. Some were out for themselves, while others worked for corporations. Murder and sabotage were tools of the trade.

I always thought of her life as safe. Maybe it would have been if she hadn’t been so brilliant. Creating an implant that could send data to a clone outside of a pod was the biggest discovery since cloning became viable. The amount of money she could make would rival the wealth of CONCORD.  Whoever owned her discovery would become the most powerful person in the known universe.   

In light of this new information it was no surprise Tasha and Peter had such an elaborate protection system in place. One jump out from Reche she sent him a coded message. That was all the communication they would risk. After that, if he was alive, he would meet us at one of six locations on the station. We were going to have to split up and try to find him as fast as we could. The idea did not sit well with me, but it was the best idea we had.

She sent me three of the locations and a digital photo of Peter. I made the jump to Reche station first, enjoying CONCORDs standard pissed off response about my lawlessness. As soon as the com channel was silent, I could feel the storm of emotions beating at the back of my brain. For now the pod feed drowned it out. But soon it wouldn’t be there as my shield.

I docked at the station and let the massive machines pull me to my spot. I ran my checklists through power down and almost suffocated in the onslaught of emotion once I disconnected from the pod. I closed my eyes and did my best to visualize shoving the torrent of feelings into little compartments in my mind.

It was something I learned to do as a part of my training a lifetime ago. In battle, if you lose control of your thoughts and emotions things go bad. I managed to shove the majority of the shit storm going on in my head into little mental rooms and slammed the doors shut. I could feel the doors straining under the stress.

Out of habit I ran the power up checklists to the point where I would connect my mind with the pod, and then I jumped out. All I had to do was find Peter and get him and Tasha off the station. Then I was getting the hell away from Tasha. I could go off somewhere and lick my wounds.  Maybe I could salvage anything that was left of my life. At least that was the promise I made to myself to get my feet moving towards the arms vendor near the lifts.

I purchased a DF-34 blaster at a ridiculous price. Once that business was taken care of I headed to the lifts. While I waited, I scanned the hanger for any signs that we might have problems. The bay was filled with the clangs and clatter I expected from a fairly busy station. The fact that no one was trying to kill me or kidnap me yet made me feel pretty good about the situation.

Once the lift arrived, I checked my communicator for the first location on the list. Ten people joined me inside before the door closed. Only one of them grabbed my attention. He was an Amarr pilot wearing a flight suit. He was completely plain. His average height, weight, and face would help him blend in anywhere. Unless you had any situational awareness what so ever. Most people don’t.

The lift was scheduled to make a stop a floor below my destination. I stepped off with the crowed and the man followed. I feigned hesitation, looked up at the floor number, and then I rushed back on the lift before the door closed. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I had a pretty good idea that I wasn’t.

At the next floor I was off and headed to the first location. By now Tasha would be docked and I was hoping to find Peter before she had too much time to get into trouble. We didn’t have time for any trouble.

The location turned out to be a bar in the middle of a bustling bazaar. The outside was a little shady, but the inside was relatively clean and busy. All kinds of station inhabitants were kicking back after work and having a few drinks. I relaxed a little until I saw the first Amarr man that looked too plain in a booth by himself. He had a buddy at the bar.

I ignored the Amarr twins and headed to the far side of the bar. While I waited for my drink, I alternated between messing with my communicator and scanning the room for Peter. Half way through the second look I saw him sitting at a booth by himself. Even if Tasha hadn’t sent me a picture I would have known it was him instantly. He was the pasty white cliché of a scientist sitting there nervously drinking his beer while he subconsciously pushed up his glasses.

I sent Tasha our location and waited for her to respond. I didn’t want to go to him too quickly in case the Amarr men decided to try and stop me. As soon as I went to the booth they would know I was connected with him somehow, if they didn’t already.

I waited until I got the message she was only a few levels away, then I casually strolled over to the booth.

“This seat taken?” I asked with a wink.

“Um, no. But I was just leaving,” he said, as he started a panicked slide out of the booth.

I set down next to him to stop his escape. He retreated to the wall, fear radiating from his eyes. I put my drink down on the table to free up my hand in case the little man got crazy.

“Relax, I’m here to help you get off the station,” I said, in the most reassuring voice I could muster.

“I don’t want help,” voice now raising to a panicked level.

I put my hand on his arm trying to get him to calm down. He recoiled and smashed himself further against the wall.

“Listen, keep it down. I’m here with Tasha. She is on her way. We want to get you safely off the station.”

He seemed to calm, at least he wasn’t crawling up the wall anymore. He started to fish around in his pockets. I tensed, readying myself to move, then immediately realized how silly that was.  He clumsily looked down as though his vision would somehow help him find what he was digging for.

Once he found it, he looked up at me with a renewed hope. He grabbed my hand and slid something into my palm.

“Please, let me out of this booth. I don’t want help. I just want to be left alone. I don’t want to help anyone anymore. You can have all my data. Give it to Tasha, but please let me go.”

His smile was genuine, and I could tell how innocent he was. It bothered me that this poor man had been pulled into such a mess. I didn’t know I was capable of feeling pity anymore. Maybe I was still human.

I opened my hand to find that he had slipped me a micro data chip. I slipped it into my communicator in case the fool had actually given me his research in a bar surrounded by Amarr agents. The communicator flashed with the receipt and download message for 20 petabytes. If it wasn’t his data it was a shit ton of something. I set the communicator for a remote upload to my computer back home in case I didn’t make it off the station.

When I looked up, Tasha was standing at the table. Peter slid back against the wall and any hope that had been in his eyes disappeared. If it was possible I think he turned a brighter shade of white.

“Peter, I’m so glad we got to you before anything bad happened,” she said, as she slid into the booth.

“Yes, I guess that is for the best,” he gulped.

“We need to get out of here as fast as we can. There are two Amarr agents in the bar, and I saw one on the way up,” I said to get us moving.

“Okay, let’s head to the closest lift,” Tasha said, sliding back out of the booth and heading toward the door.

I stood and stepped aside, allowing a hesitating Peter to go in front of me. I didn’t like Tasha taking the lead, but maybe it was better if I was watching our backs. I risked a quick look back as the bar door swung shut to see the two Amarr men on the move. We didn’t have a lot of time.

Tasha was already waiting at the lift when we got there. The next car wasn’t due for two minutes and the Amarr men were about 30 seconds away. This plan was not going to work out for us. I grabbed Peter with one hand and Tasha with another and launched us down the hallway toward the nearest stairwell. If the floor was set up like most stations the emergency stairs would be around the next corner.

“Laka, we need to take the lift or we will never make it to the hanger,” she complained as I yanked her around the next junction. She seemed to recognize my plan and protested with a shake of her head as she sprinted toward the door. I pulled Peter at a run behind her.

As she started messing with the control panel I turned to see what kind of trouble followed. Rounding the corner, taking their time, were three Amarr men with shit eating grins on their faces. The one on the right pulled his stupid plain jacket back to reveal a not so plain handgun. I responded with an arrogant stare and a gesture that would make a Minmatar slave blush.

Peter slid next to Tasha and started working on the door. I hoped between the two of them they could get it opened. The men stopped and waited. Time was on their side, and there were probably more of them on the way. Maybe they weren’t sure which of us they were after. I could have shot them, but the last thing we needed was station alarms going off.  Not to mention the one or two guards who gave a fuck showing up to add to our problems.

There was a beep behind me and a happy yelp as Tasha threw open the door and she and Peter ran inside. The three men came sprinting toward me with determination on their faces. I made it inside and shut the door right before the first man slammed into it knocking me backwards onto the grating. He lost his balance and fell through the door onto the floor. The other two men bounded in, the second falling with a sickening thud on top of the first, and the third clearing the pileup onto the landing in front of me.

I got to my feet as he reached for Peter and launched myself into him at knee level. He fell into the railing and I followed, world turning end over end as we tumbled down the first set of stairs. I tucked my head in and hoped all the way down I survived this long enough to punch him in the face. I fell what seemed like forever, and then slammed into the corner of the wall where the steps made their turn down toward the next landing.

Once the world stopped spinning I looked up to see the agent, already standing near the railing, hands holding his head. Neither of us was moving fast. I took in a deep breath and forced myself into motion, crossing the distance between us and managing to push him with all my weight before he knew what was coming. He tumbled over the railing and screamed right up until a sudden silence accompanied by a thud. Either his security status was questionable, or he didn’t die close enough to me for the station computers to set off the alarms.

I looked up just in time to see Tasha bend over and grab the last conscious agents head and slam it into her knee. There was a loud crunch, and he dropped like a brick. I would have been impressed if not for the stairwell door opening about two floors up followed by the shouts men moving down toward our location.

Tasha and Peter didn’t need any more motivation to move quickly. Tasha sprinted by me and Peter grabbed my hand as he passed. I looked back long enough to see a stream of agents pouring down the stairwell. I yanked my hand lose from Peter’s and picked up the pace. The injuries from my fall burned into my muscles with each step.

We were pulling ahead of the agents when the first shot burned through the banister behind me. It was followed by two more, and I realized that the shots were coming from below. Return fire rained down from above accompanied by the muted sound of station alarms.

Tasha and Peter stopped a few steps below me and pushed themselves against the wall. I slipped against the next corner and risked a look below. What I saw struck an unnatural fear in my heart.

“What’s going on,” Tasha yelled over the gunfire.

“Blood Raiders,” I groaned.

We were trapped between what looked like a platoon of Amarr agents and at least 20 Blood Raiders.

Just fucking great.