Chapter Twenty-One
Tipping Point
“This wasn’t what I had in mind!” Colby yelped from the back seat of the agile Banjo’s Arrow as it flipped end over end with a cackling Sec at the controls.
Laser fire cut through the air around them as the Cent cut thrust before slamming the throttle to maximum again, sending the Arrow shooting off at a new angle. The change in thrust knocked Colby unconscious again.
The Sand’s Embrace fighters swept past, desperately counter-burning to try and keep up with the sharp directional changes as Sec pinballed through the system,
“WoooHooo!” Sec whooped.
“Uurgh,” Colby came round. “I don’t feel too good.”
“No shit!” Sec chuckled. “You’ve passed out like ten times in the last half hour. That can NOT be good for you.”
“You’re not human,” Colby muttered. “You can’t be.”
“Oh, you noticed?” Sec’s grin stretched across his face as he let out an evil chuckle. “So, let’s talk about you banging my sister, shall we?”
“Wha—” Colby never got to finish his sentence as an abrupt change in direction slammed his head against the side of the Arrow.
“Ha!” Sec let out a giggle. “This is going to be a riot.”
He flipped the Arrow again, the Sand’s Embrace fighters dead in his sights. “Bang! Bang! You’re dead!”
“What the hell?” The open comm line exploded. “Who is this?”
“This is the Immortal and all-powerful Sec; consider it a great sign of my mercy that you live.” Sec cackled again and shot away.
It was time to make the delivery and get on board the Falling Waters Capital ship for a little light hacking.
“This express courier shit is so much more fun than trading,” Sec sighed happily.
Colby groaned, so Sec swung the Arrow through a sudden jerk to the right, slamming the man’s head against the other wall.
“Ding! You’ve won our top prize! Concussion squared!” He slipped the Arrow into alignment with the small craft bays, transmitting the secure key they had given him, and the doors rolled aside.
The moment the bay was sealed and aired, Sec popped the reinforced canopy open and climbed out.
“Express Messenger?” A man entered, uniform a bright white lined in blue.
“Vital delivery from Admiral Reston, Sah!” Sec popped off a sarcastic salute.
“Just hand it over, will you,” the man sighed as Sec handed over the datapad.
“You are welcome to get some food and rest before you leave again,” the soldier said, stopping at the door. “But watch where you go, okay?”
“No worries,” Sec waved, “I’m just going to get a little shut-eye and head back out.”
The soldier nodded and walked out.
Sec waited until he heard the boots receding before crossing to the door controls. He jammed his hand against the mechanism and whistled as he forced the nanites inside.
“Quick look at the layout… and… Bingo!” Sec smiled.
He checked the internal map he had borrowed from the system and located the control systems for the internal cameras. He put them on a loop as he trotted back to the Arrow and pulled the unconscious Colby from the cockpit, dragging him across the floor and out the door.
A quick touch on the corridor’s walls and the doors on either side sealed, showing an error in the mechanism to anyone curious enough to look.
“See, this is actually a decent design,” Sec told the near-comatose man. “At least one emergency escape pod in every section.” he kicked the wall a couple of times until the compartment wall retracted, the pod door opening as an alarm started to sound. Sec frowned and flicked his fingers, shutting it off.
He threw Colby into the pod, considering using the seatbelts before just chuckling and leaving them undone.
“I want you to know, it’s not that I want you dead; it’s just that Prim really likes you. If she likes a fleshy little weakling like you, she’s going to get hurt.”
He lobbed a small box into the pod. “I’d get mum to drone you, but everyone’s all funny about people consenting to that kind of thing.”
He stopped, looking into the pod, hands on his hips.
“Oh, sod it! I kinda like you,” He tossed his pistol in as well before targeting the planet below. “Best of luck, buddy. Really. I mean that!” He kicked the door closed and made sure it was sealed before he launched it into space.
He tapped the wall again, and the partition closed. After a little work on the ship’s computer, it showed that no pods had launched again.
“Nice, now, where can I get a cuppa?” Sec asked the empty corridor.
He sat in the small mess, drinking a cup of something frankly awful as he sorted through the computer files, resisting the urge to have a little fun by switching the Friend or Foe settings or vent the place to space.
He was a Marshall now, which meant he must be reasonable and responsible.
An image of the escape pod flickered into his mind for a second. That was, in his confident opinion, a reasonable action. It was more reasonable than chucking him out of an airlock, for example, or forcibly upgrading him.
He finished copying the files but couldn’t resist a tiny bit of fun—just a prank, really. He adjusted their targeting computers by a mere 1%—it was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Unless, of course, you were flying through space, shooting at other things flying through space.
He ambled back toward the landing bay, making a few more minor adjustments here and there just to pass the time.
The engines failed, and the ship began to list.
“That wasn’t me,” Sec yelped. “Time to go.” The amble was upgraded to a fast walk, followed by changing into a run when the whole frame seemed to shiver under a cluster of impacts.
He was sprinting once the warning klaxons began to sound.
Sec was almost to the bay when the wall ahead ruptured, sending a crewman into the far wall. Blood gushed from the man’s head as he crashed to the ground.
“Ouch,” Sec started to edge past the smoke and fire pouring from the area, only to feel something grab his leg.
Stolen novel; please report.
“H-Help me,” the injured crewman was holding onto Sec, tears of pain running down his face.
“Damn it, man,” Sec growled. “I was almost out of here.”
“Please,” the man coughed, face going pale.
“Well, shit,” Sec grabbed the man as he passed out, tossing him easily over one shoulder. “Now, where in Banjo’s nutsack was that bloody med bay?”
/===<<<>>>===\
Sec finally found the med bay, an injured man over each shoulder and dragging a woman who seemed to be alive. Ish.
“Yo! A little help over here!” Sec yelled, ignoring the chaos in the room. Every bed was occupied, doctors and medics were yelling at each other everywhere. “Holy balls, are you operating on that guy on the floor? Dude, that’s unsanitary.”
“Will you fuck off!” The man snarled, only to see the people Sec was carrying. “We got more injured! Orderlies!”
Sec handed his cargo off to the two harried-looking individuals and stopped to watch the excitement for a while.
“Who are you?” The doc on the floor asked.
“I’m Sec; I was just here to deliver a package.” Sec shrugged.
“Want to help us out a bit more?”
“Honestly, no,” Sec chuckled. “But I can’t exactly just bail now, can I?”
The doctor laughed and pointed to the shelves by the door.
Sec grabbed one of the medkits there and knelt down.
“Okay, so we are going to teach you some basic procedures, and then you are going to go try and do them on people out there,” he nodded to the hallway. “You good with that?”
“I can think of worst ways to spend some time,” Sec grinned. “They don’t normally let me try things out on people.”
The doctor laughed and started to outline some of the basics. Sec listened carefully. After all, this was flesh stuff. If Carl Edwards could do it, Sec sure as hell could.
For two hours, Sec moved back and forth in the corridor outside. Given the chaos in the medbay, the more minor injuries were being treated out there, which was kind of invigorating. One after another, he set bones, sealed cuts, and bandaged wounds. It was kind of rewarding, in a way Sec usually only experienced when he was designing a new ship or some weird bit of tech.
In between the procedures, Sec downloaded stats and designs for everything in the medical bay, just in case he wanted to try any of this again.
Maybe next time they would let him actually cut someone up a bit.
It looked fun.
“You might have missed your calling, my friend,” the doctor said, coming out into the hall and wiping his hands dry. “That was a solid bit of work you’ve done here today.”
“No worries,” Sec smiled. He had no idea if this was even the same doctor he had spoken to before. The fleshy ones all kind of looked the same. Sec really needed a little metallic signature under the skin to tell them apart. “What was I going to do, walk past?”
“Well, you are a good man, Messenger Sec,” the doctor held out his hand to shake. Sec shook it, tuning out what the man was saying until he caught the word ‘reward.’
“Pardon?” Sec frowned.
“It’s not much I know, but, well,” He smiled. “I wanted to do something.” The man handed him a small pouch. “Consider yourself a qualified medic.”
“Wow,” Sec beamed. “Thanks, Doc!”
“You more than proved your skills here today. Stay safe out there.” He waved as Sec hurried away.
With a bit of luck, he could get back to the Arrow before he ended up late to meet up with Fair Weather.
Being back in the cockpit was a blast, and let him get a little practice on his story before he got back. I mean, he assumed they would notice that Colby was not there.
“Honestly, I did everything I could. He just panicked during the attack and leaped into an escape pod.” Sec said, deep sadness in his voice. “I would have gone after him in the Arrow, but… Oh, shit, I really have an excuse this time.” He grinned. “Medic Sec was busy saving lives.”
He flipped the Arrow over a passing missile and gunned the engines until his skin was in danger of being pulled off his face. The system was still full of battles and lasers as he passed through it, occasionally taking a close run along the side of one of the larger ships just for fun.
In no time, he was at the jump point and into Transit Space. He spent a calm twenty minutes watching the patterns in the twisting colors and waving at the strange creatures that seemed to be there and not there at the same time.
By the time he dropped back into regular space, Sec reckoned the explanation was word-perfect and totally beyond reproach.
Absolutely fool-proof.
/===<<<>>>===\
The camera feed from the external sensors on the Arrow replayed again, and they all watched Sec drag the unconscious Colby across the landing bay floor.
Prim pressed a button, and the feed changed to show the crew readout from inside the Arrow. The crew distance reading on Colby started to shoot up until it changed to read ‘Out of Range.’
Sec raised his hand as the whole process started over again.
“Yes?” Crush asked, and Sec noted the flat tone. That was not good for his immediate future.
“Can I take this moment to say that I feel reviewing that footage marks a shocking display of a lack of trust?” Sec did his best to look grave. “If we can’t respect each other’s privacy, where will that leave us?”
“Shoving each other into enemy escape pods?” Cara suggested. Her knuckles were white as she clenched her fists.
“That comment feels a little reductive,” Sec tried. “I offered him an exciting opportunity to experience survival training.”
“I am tempted just to shoot you,” Cara snapped.
“Cara,” Crush warned.
“Don’t worry, Boss,” Cara grinned. “I came up with a much better punishment for this little criminal.”
“Words hurt, Cara,” Sec said. “Words hurt.”
“Last chance, Sec,” Cara said, eyes going dead. “Tell me why.”
“If you touch me, I’m telling my Mother!” Sec dropped his ultimate trump card. No one wanted to mess with Paren.
“Nice try,” Cara chuckled darkly. “But that won’t help you now. I’m turning over your punishment to people who have no fear of her.”
“Hah!” Sec grinned. “Who?”
“Your crewmates,” Cara said, and the door behind Sec slid open.
He turned to see Prim and Quad in the doorway.
Prim’s eyes glowed.
“Is it too late to be shot?” Sec asked.
“I feel this might be an overreaction,” Sec protested as Prim and Quad strapped him down into the med bed. “I did it for your own good.”
Prim ignored him, while Quad just shook his head.
“He wasn’t one of us,” Sec protested.
“He was in our care,” Quad sighed. “Grandmother put him in our care.”
They moved him over to the rack, sliding the bed free of the wheels. It clicked ominously underneath the hood.
“We can talk about this, right?” Sec tried to catch Quad’s eye.
“Did Colby get a chance to talk about it?” Prim asked.
Sec turned to snap at her but saw something that froze his metal bones. She was crying.
“Prim, no,” Sec whispered. “I didn’t…”
“Banjo would be so disappointed in you,” Quad said, lowering the hood.
“No! NO! NO!” Sec thrashed in the restraints, but they were made for Imperium people, so they were too strong to break.
His mind swirled, filling with thoughts of the one man in the universe who had first earned his trust and admiration. Banjo. They were HIS Four Cents.
He would never be disappointed in them… but he couldn’t trick himself. Not about this.
“Banjo would be so disappointed in me,” Sec repeated the phrase occasionally as he started to weep. By the time the hood opened again, he felt the wrongness of what he had done deep in his digital soul.
“Are we home?” Sec asked. “Did he make it out?”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Quad growled. “That was only a half hour.”
“Do you get it yet?” Prim asked.
“Yes, damn it.” Sec nodded. “I get it. I’ll never—uurgk,” He gasped as Prim snapped her hands around his neck.
“Good, now I can beat you to death!” She snarled as Quad pulled her back.
“Five minutes with a human, and she’s all emotional!” Sec shook his head and offered Quad a weak grin. “Too soon?”
He saw Quad’s fist coming, and then it went black for a moment.
Consciousness returned, and Sec swallowed.
“You are on restricted duties until we get back to the Imperium,” Cara said gravely. “No more trips in the Arrow, no more leaving the ship at all.”
“And when we get back”? Sec asked.
“Then you get to explain things to your mother and the Queens,” Cara said.
“Both of them?” Sec asked.
“Fine,” Sec crossed his arms. “Who is going to collect Colby?”
“No one,” Cara’s jaw flexed. “The system has been locked down tight, and we have been ordered back to the bucket for now.”
“But we can’t leave him there!” Sec gaped. “What if he doesn’t make it?”
“Welcome to being a Marshall, Sec,” Cara snapped. “Actions have consequences. If he dies, it will be blood on your hands that will never wash away. Not just an innocent, an ally’s blood.”
Sec looked down at the floor.
“Can I fix this?” Sec asked quietly.
“If he makes it back, maybe,” Cara said sadly. “If he doesn’t…”
“He’ll make it,” Sec said grimly. “He’ll make it.”