Chapter 3 - The Doctor

Wormhole travel is fast but not instantaneous, leaving us time to talk.

“So...” I started “As you're clearly not enthusiastic about babysitting me, I have to wonder, what did you do to get yourself stuck here?”

“I'd rather not talk about it”

“Queen look up recent history about Beth”

“Right away”

“Belay that massage” Beth quickly responded

“Yes captain”

“What, Queen it’s me”

“You said that Bethany is the captain”

“But… doesn't matter. Beth we’re supposed to be partners, and partners share…” I attempted to reason. Time to pull out the big guns “I’ll continue pestering you until you agree. Beth, Beth, Beth, Beth”

“Fine, just shut up” she finally gave in “I may have made a few unauthorized drug busts”

I let out a victory smile, much to her frown “Elaborate...”

“I felt something fishy about the way our tasks were distributed. Feeling the need to get to the bottom of it, I started a side investigation of my own. My latest bust revealed a few questionable connections to some higher places” she paused “The people In question were shaken, but not enough to fall down. I was suspended till further notice, but then you came along, and someone thought it would be smart to put me on this train wreck of an idea” she finally finished

“Trust the system they said, sure just give me a pistol and I'll shoot myself” I said “Still I don't think that’s the sole reason why you were assigned to me”

“What do you mean?”

“Ever heard of lady Soryon?”

“Wait, she’s involved?! That means… damn!” she said, slamming her fist on the table “This means it’s worse than I thought. She must have put me here because she knows I'm not aligned with the higher ups. Her tasking me with watching you isn't a coincidence, lady Soryon doesn't do things without a hidden interest”

“Damn, you make it sound very smoke and daggers” I joked

“I became a cop to help people, not for all this office politics and corruption”

“Life's a bitch, nothing new”

“In a few minutes we'll be reaching asteroid research station 103-26 in the Braka system”

“So Jayzarr, what do you expect we’ll find there?”

“ExoCorp wanted him dead, ergo he did something they didn't want others to know about. I hope his research will shed some new light"

“And how are we going to gain access to the facility?” Beth questioned “It's private space, I have no jurisdiction here"

“So” I chuckled “We go in the old fashion way"

“Which is?"

“We go to the front door, knock, and blow it the hell open"

"I am an officer of the law. I can't go breaking and entering property just cause you feel like it"

"Don't worry I'll be the one to knock it down, you won't even have to lift a single finger”

"Listen, we are not-" she tried to reject

But at that moment we got out of hyperspace

"To late”

The station was huge, the size of a skyscraper, at least 1 km long.

The entire structure was built into an asteroid that seemed to make the station look small.

"Fine, let's go knock" she said reluctantly

We both stepped out of Her Highness, who cloaked herself the second we got out.

For those of you who think that we went through the front door, well we're in space, we used the cargo bay, might as well hijack their cargo port. All courtesy of her Highness of course (gotta love Illegal AI).

The place was a large room filled with, you guessed it, cargo, lots and lots of crates of it.

"There’s nobody's here” Beth said suspiciously “There should at least be a few guards"

"You’re right. But this work’s in our favor. Let's fan out and look for an entrance"

A few moments later Beth called me over "Jayzarr found it"

It was a simple titanium door with densium bolts.

"But I don't think we can get through"

"Never fear Jayzarr is here"

"Sure, and how exactly are you going to get us through"

"Ah, but if I tell you, the magic will fade away"

"I am this close to punching you in your face"

"OK OK" motioning her to calm down as I whipped out my trusty densium knife, Sasquatch.

"What are going to do, carve your way through?"

"Oh this" I said lifting the blade ready to strike the door "This little knife here is Sasquatch" and I hit the door full force

"Oh, you're going to shank it" she said sarcastically

"Non believer" I complained

I then yanked the knife out, but instead of just the knife coming out, I lifted the entire door over my head like it was weightless and threw it behind me.

While enjoying the fact that Beth took a step back in amazement, I retrieved Sasquatch like the whole thing was nothing special.

“How did you do that!?”

“Densium blade, can cut through anything, messes with gravity and cancels out other densium. Now, come on and guns out”

If you're wondering why it surprised her so much, I’ll tell you a little known fact: densium is a bitch to refine and ships run on raw densium. Sasquatch is a relic I found on a tomb world while doing a job. I should've sold it to some museum or black market dealer, but seriously who would willingly give it up.

With that said drew my twin raven pistols and she took out her new gun as we entered the corridor into the facility.

“So what are you naming her?”

“Excuse me?” Beth gave me a confused look

“Your gun” I explained “What are you naming it”

“I'm sorry, I didn't know I was supposed to name my gun” she said, clearly annoyed

“Ok, ok let’s go” and we went.

While going through the facility one thing was evident, the place was deserted, not a soul to be found. Curiously enough though, the entire facility look like it was only deserted a day or two ago.

The place itself was mostly office rooms with white marble walls and floors, nice wooden desks and office chairs. PC’s still up and running.

“Ok, I give up what are we looking for Jayzarr”

“I have no idea” I admitted “I thought that there would be people here. Didn’t expect the place to be deserted... Well this was a waste of-”

Suddenly, an ear piercing scream erupted down the hallway.

Immediately we both started running towards the scream, passing through more office room along the way.

“The hell was that?” I asked

“Not sure, but have your pistols ready”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

We continued onto a rampart overlooking a giant hangar.

The second we opened the door a horrible stench hit us, one I know too well.

It took Beth one look too fall on her knees and throw up.

The hangar was filled with dead bodies, not a pretty sight to see, and not one most people see ever. Even cops don't deal with this kind of shit. Yes, they may shoot someone, but a pile of burning corpses...

As for me? Well, you kill enough people, build a reputation and they send you to off some crazed warlord who burns his own people, you get used to some things, like the smell of death (Never said my life was filled with gumdrops and rainbows).

We heard a shouting man's voice “Now give us the research files, or I will have to kill another one of your co-workers”

“Go to hell!” replied a female voice

“Honey, I’ve already been there”

In the hanger there were five people: two ladies in lab coats, one with blonde hair crying on the shoulder of the other. The second lady had black hair and glasses. She was also in tears but seemed to be a tad more in control, being able to talk back to her captor and all that.

The other three consisted of one woman and two men, all in metallic suits of armour.

“Now lassie” said the one who spoke before, he also seemed to be the leader. He was a tall man with a white goatee and scars on his face. His armor looked different, its color seemed… familiar “I don't want to do this, but our employers want the data. NOW!”

The armoured lady suddenly noticed us “Sir! there are two more employees over there” pointing at us.

“Ah, they are not employees, that’s the bounty hunter Jayzarr” he turned to me “I was told you might show up” he then ordered his lackeys “Shoot them”

I quickly grabbed the still shaken Beth and jumped to the side, all while shooting at a cable holding a bright blue shipping container above the mercs. The cable snapped and fell on the them squashing them flat.

“Thanks” said Beth, regaining most of her composure “I don't know what came over me” she said weakly with a bit of shame “I've never seen anything like... this”

“It's not your fault, no one should ever have to see this”

We both went quickly down the stairs and ran to the two survivors.

“Hi I'm Beth, officer of the Gapaiem and this is my associate Jayzarr, we’re here to help”

“I don't believe that there is much you can do for us” said the black haired woman, trying to stop her tears “I'm sorry, my name is Rachel. I'm the staff doctor”

The blonde seemed to recover a bit as she looked to us and said

“Th-thank you for saving us, I’m-”

“ALEXIS” Rachel screamed as Alexis lifeless body fell to the ground with blood all around it.

The shot came out of the rubble I saw the Hellmate got out from under it.

“You thought that was enough to stop sargent Hellmate” he said with a crazed laugh “You'll have to do better than that, boy”

“RUN” I shouted

Beth picked Rachel up and started to run, carrying her with her, while I ducked behind another crate shooting both of my pistols, providing cover fire.

The problem was that my bullets just moved aside, not even scratching Hellmate’s armor. Instead, hitting everything around him.

The merc smiled at me “Well boy, how do you like my densium armor? I'm untouchable!”

Realising its futile, I holstered my pistols, put on my hood cloaking myself and climbed to the top of the crate taking out sasquatch.

I jumped with my knife, using the momentum to aid my attack.

That led to me seeing lots of black dots. Sasquatch cut through his armor, but barely drew blood. My cloaking went down and he hit me with the back of his hand sending my flying across the room into a bunch of crates.

“I have to admit kid, you got moxy, too bad that won't save y-”

A space rover drove into him pushing him back away from me.

“JAYZARR!! over here” she called me from a golf cart like vehicle.

Beth started calling me so I got up (dear god it hurt) and started to limp toward her.

“We have to get out of here”

“No way, that son of a bitch just bitch slapped me, his head will roll”

“Yeah, well unless you've got some super weapon that works on someone like this up your sleeve, we run”

Some philosopher once said ‘You must know when to fight and when to run’, and it's running, I mean tactical retreating time.

“...”

“Come on you idiot, we're leaving NOW!!”

I climbed into the car and she put the pedal to the metal, just as the other two rose of from under the crate, albeit not unscaved, and started shooting.

While it’s nice that we got away, Beth had no idea where she was driving to.

“Rachel I understand you just lost your friend” Beth tried to comfort “But if we hope to have a chance of surviving and getting justice for her death and many others, I'll need you to hold on a little longer and tell me how to get out of here. Jazzar, how’re you doing back there?”

“Fine” I winced. Lie’s, I cracked a rib

“Okay *sniff*, where did you park your spaceship?”

“Bay 32E” Her Highness answered

“Who was that?!” Rachel jumped

“Don't worry about that for now” Beth reassured her “How do we get there?”

I’ll spare you of the boring detail like take a right here, a left there and go right to the good stuff.

“Wake up” Beth said while shaking me lightly “We’re at the ship”

“I fell asleep?” when did that happen?

“You suffered a concussion, but don't worry I’ll take care of you” The doctor answered

“My hero” I managed to say with a smile

We got up and got onto Her Highness.

As Queen cloaked up and exited the station I started to wonder “That was to easy”

“What do you mean?” Beth asked

“Why did they let us go? No pursuit or anything”

“I'm guessing they want the doctor alive” she theorised

“No, they don't need me. They need the research data from the station” Richele interrupted

“So why was Hellmate threatening you?”

“Beth... it's because she has it on her, don't you”

“Yes, it's saved on my cyber implant. If I die it gets sent out to a private server”

“Wait why would you have such a thing?” Beth asked surprised

“To insure my safety I uploaded the files to my implant”

“Its standard practice, I’ve seen it many times on the job. That way you're safe as if you die the info gets leaked” I said grimly

For the first time I noticed that Beth was looking at me not with doubt or amusement, but with pitey and sadness, hate it.

I continued “Time after time they think ‘oh they won't kill me, I’m to important, and then they send someone like me who knows how to shut it down without any leak to kill them, but what I don't get is why did you copy it in the first place?”

“Two days ago our stations lead researcher was killed after some big discovery, it set everyone on edge, and when word came from the top to hand over the research data, people started to panic”

“So they had you silence him before he could tell anyone what he found out” Beth concluded “But why was he allowed to leave?”

“He wasn't given … wait, YOU killed him!”

Out of nowhere she pulled a small little pistol (why didn't she pull it out earlier?!), and pointed it at me.

“You started this! Why?!” she yelled

“Let's take it easy” Beth said calmly “How about we do proper introductions and get to know each other before we start shooting. My name is Bethany Nax officer of the 5th degree of the Alliance, with me is-”

“I’ll take it from here. Name’s Jayzarr and I’m a bounty hunter, I won't apologize for completing a contract, but I do share my condolences for Alexis. I know how it feels to lose someone close to you”

Rachel broke down in tears (I guess she couldn't handle the stress anymore), Beth rushed to catch her (and the gun) and took her to the sleeping quarters.

“Damn, this just got more complicated” I said when she returned

“How so, now we know what they want and we have it”

“Not so simple, the data might be in her cyber implants, but it's most likely heavily encrypted”

“We bring her back to home base and let the engineer do their job”

“And what about me, I’m barely one step closer to regaining my freedom”

“The information she has will show why ExoCorp wanted Bower dead”

“Yes, but why use me and not one of the psychos chasing us?” I started to question

Beth didn't have a chance to respond as the ship shook violently.

“We’ve been hit. Shields at 30%. Cloaking is down”

“Shit, looks like we’ve got company”

“You said that if Rachel dies the information goes out, why would they risk harming her?”

“Queen check on Rachel's implant”

“Dreadfully sorry, but it seems to have been hacked and turned off”

“Fuck, they were stalling earlier, waiting for the hack to finish” I said angrily “Queen we need to make a jump, closest planet that won't kill us”

“Right away, sir. By the way we've received an incoming transmission: ’Helloo Jayzarr, how you doing boy, me? I’m fine, nice little scratch you gave me. I thought I’ll return the favor by blasting you into oblivion, fair trade, right?’ end of transmission”