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Texas Red proves to be a slippery fish, and Leena gets to know her father a little, after 19 years of his absence.
Edited: Spelling/grammar/phrasing/continuity fixes
The entire crew of The Frontier (minus Leena) and Ray’s ship, which he said was called The Space Beagle, sat around the conference table yet again, this time there was quite a lot of glaring and dirty looks being shot around. Leph and Rackham were giving Ray the evil eyes from time to time and Meryl was glaring daggers at Zach, who returned them. Serleah stood and coughed. “Ahem! We need to decide what to do. We are currently on the trail of Texas Red, and we need to decide before we pass the point of no return. I say we go after him”
Leph held up his paw. “I vote we kick them off the ship and not get involved.”
“Aye, I second that.” Rackham held up his paw as well.
Meryl also held up a paw. “Yes, kick us out, I can’t stand the smell any longer.”
Zach clenched his fist as Ray stood up and gestured wildly. “Wait! Wait! Think of what might happen if we don’t catch him! He may experiment on more innocent people!”
“Then you won’t get your money, is that it?” Leph sneered.
“Well…”
“And what about our innocent people? There are over sixty colonists on this ship, a playground for any mad scientist!” Rackham slammed his giant paws on the table.
Ray’s eyes shifted side to side. “Well… maybe Texas Red isn’t as dangerous as I made him out to be… Ha ha, sorry…”
Meryl muttered something under her breath that might have been: “No you’re not.”
“The only reason Texas Red was able to experiment on those POW’s,” Ray continued, “Was because he had his own soldiers to help him. And he only killed twenty people when a bomb he planted on a pursuit ship went off.”
Leph wasn’t surprised. “So, you lied about that, too. Just so we would feel obligated to help you?”
Ray’s head hit the table. “Yes! Yes! Fine! But he still poses a threat! What if he finds an unwitting colony and they take him in? Then people start to go missing?”
Feldoh uncrossed his arms. “I have to agree with Ray. We can get this guy on our terms before he has time to do anything. I remember being in a similar situation before, Leph. Did you help me just because you happened to like me a little more?”
Leph avoided Feldoh’s gaze. The stakes were higher then, but still Leph had risked everything to save Feldoh’s life. Zach seconded Feldoh. “I’m with Feldoh on this one, even if Meryl wants to rip my guts out, I don’t want to rip out hers.”
Meryl stood abruptly. “Then you can all go to Hell!”
She stormed towards the door, but Ray stopped her. He took her out into the hall and had a hushed conversation. They returned. Meryl slumped down in her chair. “Fine.”
Leph shook his head. “Looks like we’re out voted on this one, Rackham.”
Rackham shrugged. “Yep. If anyone comes near my colonists though, they’ll find out what the phrase “walking piledriver” means.”
Leph stood, and anyone who wasn’t already standing stood too. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Leena sat in her cabin, wondering why she was crying. When she was just six years old, she had asked Rackham why she wasn’t a husky like him and his wife. He smiled, sat her down and explained everything. After he had finished, he asked her if she understood, to which she replied “Yeah.” and ran off to play.
Since then the fact was simply that her mother and father were gone, she never knew them. As she grew up, she never thought much about how it had happened, or maybe if she wasn’t born, her mother might still be alive. What Rackham said a short while ago seemed to make too much sense, so much sense that it filled her with sorrow. She only existed because maybe her mother was a little drunk, then dead. She only existed because maybe Ray was a little horny one night, then her mother was dead. She only existed because one night, someone’s judgment lapsed, or a condom broke, or the right perfume was worn, or… her mother died. It was thoughts like these that caused fresh fountains to spring forth from Leena’s eyes, the cold, black realization that she took a life, her mother’s life, however innocent she was. But, as she thought about it more, the more she knew thinking about it wouldn’t change anything. And of course, there were the good things, her life was fine, free from many serious troubles, she had a good family, access to a large library of knowledge to feed her interests, … and Leph. None of it would be possible if Ray hadn’t swung into town one day.
Then again, if she didn’t exist, she wouldn’t be able to perceive anything anyway, and she wouldn’t be having this crisis at all.
Leena shook her head as the wells in her eyes dried. She wiped the last drops away and sniffed for the last time. She wanted to talk to Ray, he had some answers, anyway.
The cockpit was a buzz with activity, the tracking device on Texas Red’s ship was still in range, and to Leph’s surprise, they were gaining fast. Zach, Feldoh and Ray were working on a way to tie the Space Beagle’s weapons into The Frontier’s weapon controls. That way, if it came to a fight, it would more than triple their firepower, as the Space Beagle was fitted with the latest particle accelerator cannons. Leph piloted the ship himself, tracking the device on his screen; they would arrive within the hour. Meryl looked at the latest scan. “Funny, looks like he’s not moving at all.”
“Stay frosty everyone, he might have a trick up his sleeve.” Leph said as he gripped the wheel tightly.
Ray was connecting wires from The Frontier’s controls to a wireless uplink to his ship when we was lightly tapped on the shoulder. “What is it! I’m busy- oh… hello Leena.”
Leena was standing behind him, clutching her tail in her arms. “I… wanted to talk to you for a minute, if it’s alright.”
Ray stood and called out. “Meryl! Take over here, will ya?”
Leph looked up as Meryl went over. “Hello, Leena. Feeling better?”
She nodded. “Yeah… I’m sorry for-”
“No, no. Don’t apologize.”
Leph then noticed Ray standing expectantly. A range of barely perceptible emotions played across his face, resting on a frown. “…Well, I won’t keep you.”
He spun in his chair and concentrated on the view screen. Leena turned to Ray, and they walked out of the cockpit. They took a stroll through the corridors of the ship. “So, what did you want to talk about?”
Leena shrugged. “I don’t know, anything. Why doesn’t Leph like you?”
Ray looked straight ahead. “Uhh… he’s just being… protective.”
Leena was too busy trying to come up with things to ask to notice Ray’s blatant lie. “OK. Well, I would like to know what you were doing in the cockpit, it seemed busy in there.”
Ray puffed out his chest. “I’m a bounty hunter! I seek the scum of the universe and clean them! We just needed some help from Leph and Co.”
“A bounty hunter… We aren’t in danger, right?”
“Nah, Leph’s got it under control, besides, I never let bystanders come to harm!”
They walked in silence for a while, neither knowing what to say. Ray finally spoke up. “Shit, I don’t know what you’re supposed to say to a daughter you never knew you had! I don’t think this is a good idea.”
Leena’s face fell. “What?”
“I mean… I’m going to have to leave, I have a job. Maybe we should just…”
Leena was about to get angry at him, when she realized he might be right. He missed nineteen years of her life, he couldn’t just jump in now, it was too late. “You’re right.”
“Wait, I am?”
Leena nodded. “I’m the pilot on this ship, we’ll work together, but I won’t expect you to be a father. That position is already filled.”
Ray nodded as well, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. “I’m OK with that. I just wanted to say one thing: … I regret not being there.”
He looked her dead in the eye, and she knew he wasn’t lying. “…Thanks.”
To his surprise, she gave him a hug, a brief one. “Hey! What was that for?”
Leena shrugged. “I never got to hug my biological father.”
He looked confused. “It’s on my bucket list.” Leena said.
Ray felt the ship come out of hyperspace. “Looks like we’re here. Come on, let’s get back to the cockpit.”
Back on the cockpit, Leph and Serleah were looking into their screens intently, Meryl hovering above them. “Are you absolutely sure?”
“It’s clear as day, Texas Red gave us the slip.” Leph said.
Meryl slammed her paw on the bulkhead. “Shit! That slime ball…”
Ray caught her paw before she smote the wall again. “Hey, never make a job personal.”
She glared at him. “I told you that on our first job.”
“And you were right.”
Leena walked over to Leph. “I’d like to take my station now.”
Leph jumped up. “Sure thing, peach. We’ve been chasing a guy called Texas Red, you heard of him?”
Leena looked at the screen. A small chunk of metal was floating in space, probably towards the outer edge of Dead Space. “Yes, actually. I read about him somewhere. He was in prison, right?”
Leph took his seat. “Not anymore, apparently.”
Zach yelled “a-HA!” as power came on to his makeshift weapon tie in station. “Yes! I did it! I mean… We did it.”
Feldoh was about to throw a screw at him when he added the last part. “Yes… anyway, we have access to the Space Beagle’s weapons now. Though it looks like we won’t need them… Texas Red’s shirked the tracking device.”
Meryl punched Ray on the arm. “I told you to hide it better.”
“I had like, eight seconds!”
Leena had an idea, a brilliant one. “Zach, why can’t we normally detect drive fuel fumes?”
Zach scratched his head. “Well, it’s because it’s basically nothing, finding the drive runoff would be like looking for a needle in a cosmic haystack.”
Feldoh chuckled. “That’s a… Colourful expression.”
Leena grinned. “Well, here there is no haystack.”
Leph snapped his fingers. “Leena! Your brain is so sexy right now! Serleah! Find that needle!”
Serleah set the sensors for a very thorough search of the area. “There definitely is a trail here, but it’s been drifting for about an hour. Adjusting for the drift… Leena, set this course.”
She rattled off a string of numbers you wouldn’t bother reading anyway. “Good job, Serleah. Peach, take us away, maximum speed!”
Serleah smirked at Leph. “What, is my brain not sexy too?”
The jump to hyperspace wiped the smile off Serleah’s face, and she barely kept herself from vomiting. Leph barely kept himself from laughing. “Serleah, focus on measuring the age of the trail as we go along, see if we can’t measure weather or not we’re gaining on him.”
Fifteen minutes passed, the blackness outside making it seem as though they were static, the blackness causing any observer to look away after not too long. Serleah checked a graph she was constructing. “Well, it seems like the age of the drive runoff relative to the time it was produced is steadily getting lower, we are definitely gaining on him. But there’s something strange about this, if his ship was able to avoid capture for so long, it would need to be faster than a fully loaded cargo ship.”
Ray walked over and checked the graph. “Hmm. We did get a few shot off at him in out last encounter, we must have hit something.”
Serleah shrugged. “We’ll find out soon enough, we’re only twenty minutes behind him, he’s only making L^3.”
Leena checked her console. “We’ll reach the border of the anomaly before that. There are a couple of planets nearby that can sustain life, none of them have any colonies or intelligent species though.”
“He may make a run for it, try to repair his ship. He doesn’t know we’re behind him after all.”
As they arrived at the edge of the anomaly, it was clear that a ship had passed through the film not too long ago. Serleah looked at her scans, a smile spreading across her face. “He didn’t go back into hyperspace, his ion trail is as clear as day, heading for the nearest planet.”
Ray grabbed his coat from where it rested. “After him! We’ll get the bastard this time!”
Leena carefully adjusted the drive for a very brief jump that would bring them alongside Texas Red’s ship, seemingly from nowhere. Serleah braced herself, and Leena engaged the drive for a short five seconds. When they came out of hyperspace, they were directly alongside Texas Red’s ship. Leph sprang up, captaining a ship was never dull for him, quite the opposite, everything he did was a constant source of excitement. “Open fire with the particle accelerator cannons! Target the weapons!”
Feldoh looked through the manual viewfinder, necessary due to the arrangement they had. Before he fired at the ship’s weapon array, he swore he could see Texas Red, in his underwear, staring in disbelief out a window at The Frontier and the Space Beagle. The cannons glowed, then two blue streams of pure energy shot out, carving a swath across the weapons of Texas Red’s ship, smashing the particles together so that they were so dense they appeared to vanish, but in reality they were simply squished back into the ship, the metal glowing white hot. So powerful was this blast, that some of the metal was smashed into different elements, which decayed quickly. Texas Red was not about to stick around for round two, and he powered up his ion engine ad pushed it to its limit, heading into the nearby planet. Ray jumped up and down. “After him! Meryl, we’re going down there after him in the Space Beagle.”
Leena piloted The Frontier into an orbit, and by the time they were ready, Texas Red had already landed. Ray rummaged around in his coat and pulled out a shotgun. “Leph, we could use some extra paws.” He pumped the shotgun.
Serleah ogled the gun in Ray’s paws. “Is that… “The Last Shotgun”?”
Ray grinned. “Good eye, there. Yep. This is the last chemically propelled projectile weapon produced on Atriea. She’s never let me down yet.”
Meryl pulled Ray along as she rolled her eyes. “God, sometimes I wonder if you’ve got some kind of gun fetish.”
Serleah followed them. “Leph, I’m going with you.”
Leph was still sitting in his chair. “Uhh… OK. Zach, you’ve got command. Oh, and Leena?”
She looked up. Leph messed with her head fur. “Fancy flying there, peach.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
The Space Beagle barely flew, but it got them through the atmosphere safely enough. On the way, Ray and Serleah sat polishing their guns, Ray with his shotgun and Serleah with her less impressive energy pistol. Leph could see, even as she piloted the ship, that Meryl also had a holstered gun, and was tapping it absentmindedly. “Hey, I don’t have a weapon.”
Ray tossed him a pistol he pulled from his coat. “There.”
Leph looked at the tiny thing, and Serleah chuckled. “What is that, a .38 special?”
Ray laughed. “Ha ha! You really know your gun history. I’m guessing you worked security somewhere?”
“Yep, on a cargo ship, for four years.”
Leph turned the gun over in his paws. “So… is it a .38 special, or…”
Serleah looked at him like he had just grown a second head. “The .38 special Is a four hundred year old gun, famed for its shittyness. But yeah, that’s pretty much its equivalent.”
“Great.”
With a bump, the Space Beagle landed on the surface of the planet, throwing up dust and debris. Everyone locked and loaded their weaponry, and stepped towards the ramp. Meryl opened the door, and they stepped out into the dusty desert air. The sun beat down on them as they trekked along the sand dunes, the heat was sweltering. Leph wiped his brow. “I can’t believe Terra is full of deserts. If Atriea was this hot, we wouldn’t have evolved to have fur. That’s a weird mental image.”
Leph’s odd comment garnered a glance from Serleah. “You alright there? Heat getting to you?”
Leph waved his paw. “Nah.”
Ray pointed towards a flat plain of sand. A ship rested there, silent and still. “There he is. I can taste the gold now.”
The flat plain was surrounded by dunes, and so they lay on the closest dune and watched the ship. Nothing happened, the ship was dead, and no one came out. Meryl studied the ship through a pair of binoculars. “Maybe he walked into the desert?”
Ray stood up. “He’s not that stupid, he must be inside.”
Carefully, they surrounded the ship, silently. The doors were closed, and showed no evidence of ever being open. Serleah walked along the outside of the ship as the rest tried to pry the doors open. She noticed an alcove in the side of the ship, with a hatch inside. It was strange to see, the hatch was open, and the inside showed signs of explosive decompression. The realization hit Serleah like a freight train: it was an escape pod. She ran back up the dunes towards the ship. “Guys! Texas Red used an escape pod! I don’t know how I missed it, but if he gets to the ship…”
It was too late. Texas Red stood on the cockpit of The Frontier, a laser pistol with twenty notches on it pointed at Leena’s head. Zach tried his best to keep cool, attempting to talk him down. “Slow down, there. You don’t want to do anything you’ll regret.”
Texas Red pressed the gun harder against Leena’s temple, her face a mask of fear. Feldoh moved towards the door. Texas Red pointed at him. “Ah ah ah! No one moves. I wouldn’t hesitate to kill any one of you, but someone would hear the shot. You, fox, take us away from the planet, and don’t try anything, your life is worth nothing to me.”
Leena didn’t move. Feldoh looked at the situation and saw history repeating itself. He put a paw behind his back. “Leena, do what he says.”
Zach took a step closer as Leena set an escape course. “I’m interested in hearing your rationale about that, Texas Red. Can I call you Texas?”
Texas Red glared at him. “My real name is Robbins.”
Zach spread his arms. “Robbins, nice to meet you. I’m Zach. I’d like to hear why our lives don’t matter.”
Robbins smiled. “First of all, you’re all Atrieans.”
Zach felt his skin. “Did I forget to wear my fur today?”
“You’re no better. You’ve clearly lived with these people for too long. You act like them. When was the last time you celebrated your birthday?”
“We don’t…” Zach frowned.
Robbins chucked, then laughed. “You don’t celebrate your birthday, because you’re an Atriean.”
Zach shrugged. “So what? Atrieans are intelligent beings, just like you.”
Robbins nodded. “Yes, and then we come to my second reason. My work is very important, I must continue it!”
As this exchange was going on, Feldoh inched closer and closer to the closest console.
Zach walked around Robbins so that his attention would be away from Feldoh. “Oh?”
“I am on the verge of a revolutionary discovery!”
He leaned closer to Zach. “Immortality.”
It was Zach’s turn to laugh. “That’s a pipe dream.”
“If it was, would I do all this? I am so close to making Humans immortal, and finally recognized as the superior race.”
Leena managed to speak. “Immortality is a curse. Being cognizant for long enough would break a person.”
Robbins pressed the gun harder still. “That is part of the brilliance of my research, It protects against this, you’ll see! You’ll see!”
Feldoh switched on the intercom, and every word spoken was heard throughout the ship. Unfortunately, the intercom beeped when it came on. Robbins whirled around. “What did you do you miserable furry?!”
Feldoh held up his paws. “Nothing!”
But they all could hear the reverb as every word echoed throughout the ship. Robbins was furious. “You idiot! Now you will watch your friend die!”
The next few events happened quickly and at the same time, as Robbins whirled around to shoot Leena, Rackham came bursting through the door, swinging a box. This caused Robins to flinch, but he still shot Leena, who ended up on the floor. Rackham roared a mighty roar and threw the box at Robbins, smashing it over his head. Robbins sprawled on the floor, and Rackham jumped on him, holding him up and punching his face repeatedly. “You son of a bitch! You shot her! You…”
He stopped punching. Robbins’ face was bloody and bruised even after the short time, and he coughed blood onto Rackham’s shirt. Feldoh was crouching next to Leena as he looked her over. “You OK?”
Leena was clutching her ear. “He missed by an inch. Ow…”
She let go of her ear, it was burned, and a semicircle shape had been punched into it. Feldoh sighed with relief. “Well, at least the laser cauterized the wound. Rackham! Leena’s fine! Let him go.”
Rackham took the laser pistol and tossed Robbins onto the ground. Leph, Serleah, Ray and Meryl burst through the door, guns at the ready. Leph saw Leena on the ground, and he rushed over. “Leena! God, what happened?! Your ear…”
He crouched beside her. “It’s nothing, Leph. Just a flesh wound- Oof!”
Leph hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry for letting him get so far. I should have seen it coming! He could have killed you…”
Robbins coughed and staggered up. “You brute… do you know what… you’ve done?”
Rackham grabbed him and pushed him at Ray. “Here’s your quarry. Take him and go.”
Ray produced a pair of paw cuffs from his coat and bound Robbins. “Alright creep, you’re letting me retire.”
He gave the cuff’s lead to Meryl. “Take him to the ship and send a message to the Solar Federation. Use the code word, don’t want any other bounty hunters to show up.”
Ray sat by Leena, still locked in Leph’s embrace, as Meryl dragged Robbins off. “Well, I’ll be leaving now. Maybe I’ll visit you sometime.”
Leph let go of Leena and held out his paw. “Ray, I know we don’t see eye to eye, but… good luck.”
Ray laughed and shook his paw. “Thanks. Take good care of Leena. Goodbye.”
He stood and ran after Meryl. Leph looked at Leena’s ear again. “Man, and I really liked your ears too…”
She felt the edges of the wound. “I think it would look cool… a chip in my ear.”
Leph helped her up, even though she didn’t need help. “Let’s continue on, shall we?”
She took her seat. “Yep.”
Feldoh took his station, some small part of him was healed, seeing that he was able to, at least this time, prevent disaster.
Light years away, back in Dead Space, a single metal plate floated in the blackness, a battery powered running light flashing on its surface. The plate had fallen off The Frontier during flight, and now it drifted towards the edge of the anomaly. The running light blinked out momentarily, as if something had passed in front of it. The plate was abruptly engulfed with blackness, then gone. Not a trace of it remained.
Texas Red proves to be a slippery fish, and Leena gets to know her father a little, after 19 years of his absence.
Edited: Spelling/grammar/phrasing/continuity fixes
The entire crew of The Frontier (minus Leena) and Ray’s ship, which he said was called The Space Beagle, sat around the conference table yet again, this time there was quite a lot of glaring and dirty looks being shot around. Leph and Rackham were giving Ray the evil eyes from time to time and Meryl was glaring daggers at Zach, who returned them. Serleah stood and coughed. “Ahem! We need to decide what to do. We are currently on the trail of Texas Red, and we need to decide before we pass the point of no return. I say we go after him”
Leph held up his paw. “I vote we kick them off the ship and not get involved.”
“Aye, I second that.” Rackham held up his paw as well.
Meryl also held up a paw. “Yes, kick us out, I can’t stand the smell any longer.”
Zach clenched his fist as Ray stood up and gestured wildly. “Wait! Wait! Think of what might happen if we don’t catch him! He may experiment on more innocent people!”
“Then you won’t get your money, is that it?” Leph sneered.
“Well…”
“And what about our innocent people? There are over sixty colonists on this ship, a playground for any mad scientist!” Rackham slammed his giant paws on the table.
Ray’s eyes shifted side to side. “Well… maybe Texas Red isn’t as dangerous as I made him out to be… Ha ha, sorry…”
Meryl muttered something under her breath that might have been: “No you’re not.”
“The only reason Texas Red was able to experiment on those POW’s,” Ray continued, “Was because he had his own soldiers to help him. And he only killed twenty people when a bomb he planted on a pursuit ship went off.”
Leph wasn’t surprised. “So, you lied about that, too. Just so we would feel obligated to help you?”
Ray’s head hit the table. “Yes! Yes! Fine! But he still poses a threat! What if he finds an unwitting colony and they take him in? Then people start to go missing?”
Feldoh uncrossed his arms. “I have to agree with Ray. We can get this guy on our terms before he has time to do anything. I remember being in a similar situation before, Leph. Did you help me just because you happened to like me a little more?”
Leph avoided Feldoh’s gaze. The stakes were higher then, but still Leph had risked everything to save Feldoh’s life. Zach seconded Feldoh. “I’m with Feldoh on this one, even if Meryl wants to rip my guts out, I don’t want to rip out hers.”
Meryl stood abruptly. “Then you can all go to Hell!”
She stormed towards the door, but Ray stopped her. He took her out into the hall and had a hushed conversation. They returned. Meryl slumped down in her chair. “Fine.”
Leph shook his head. “Looks like we’re out voted on this one, Rackham.”
Rackham shrugged. “Yep. If anyone comes near my colonists though, they’ll find out what the phrase “walking piledriver” means.”
Leph stood, and anyone who wasn’t already standing stood too. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Leena sat in her cabin, wondering why she was crying. When she was just six years old, she had asked Rackham why she wasn’t a husky like him and his wife. He smiled, sat her down and explained everything. After he had finished, he asked her if she understood, to which she replied “Yeah.” and ran off to play.
Since then the fact was simply that her mother and father were gone, she never knew them. As she grew up, she never thought much about how it had happened, or maybe if she wasn’t born, her mother might still be alive. What Rackham said a short while ago seemed to make too much sense, so much sense that it filled her with sorrow. She only existed because maybe her mother was a little drunk, then dead. She only existed because maybe Ray was a little horny one night, then her mother was dead. She only existed because one night, someone’s judgment lapsed, or a condom broke, or the right perfume was worn, or… her mother died. It was thoughts like these that caused fresh fountains to spring forth from Leena’s eyes, the cold, black realization that she took a life, her mother’s life, however innocent she was. But, as she thought about it more, the more she knew thinking about it wouldn’t change anything. And of course, there were the good things, her life was fine, free from many serious troubles, she had a good family, access to a large library of knowledge to feed her interests, … and Leph. None of it would be possible if Ray hadn’t swung into town one day.
Then again, if she didn’t exist, she wouldn’t be able to perceive anything anyway, and she wouldn’t be having this crisis at all.
Leena shook her head as the wells in her eyes dried. She wiped the last drops away and sniffed for the last time. She wanted to talk to Ray, he had some answers, anyway.
The cockpit was a buzz with activity, the tracking device on Texas Red’s ship was still in range, and to Leph’s surprise, they were gaining fast. Zach, Feldoh and Ray were working on a way to tie the Space Beagle’s weapons into The Frontier’s weapon controls. That way, if it came to a fight, it would more than triple their firepower, as the Space Beagle was fitted with the latest particle accelerator cannons. Leph piloted the ship himself, tracking the device on his screen; they would arrive within the hour. Meryl looked at the latest scan. “Funny, looks like he’s not moving at all.”
“Stay frosty everyone, he might have a trick up his sleeve.” Leph said as he gripped the wheel tightly.
Ray was connecting wires from The Frontier’s controls to a wireless uplink to his ship when we was lightly tapped on the shoulder. “What is it! I’m busy- oh… hello Leena.”
Leena was standing behind him, clutching her tail in her arms. “I… wanted to talk to you for a minute, if it’s alright.”
Ray stood and called out. “Meryl! Take over here, will ya?”
Leph looked up as Meryl went over. “Hello, Leena. Feeling better?”
She nodded. “Yeah… I’m sorry for-”
“No, no. Don’t apologize.”
Leph then noticed Ray standing expectantly. A range of barely perceptible emotions played across his face, resting on a frown. “…Well, I won’t keep you.”
He spun in his chair and concentrated on the view screen. Leena turned to Ray, and they walked out of the cockpit. They took a stroll through the corridors of the ship. “So, what did you want to talk about?”
Leena shrugged. “I don’t know, anything. Why doesn’t Leph like you?”
Ray looked straight ahead. “Uhh… he’s just being… protective.”
Leena was too busy trying to come up with things to ask to notice Ray’s blatant lie. “OK. Well, I would like to know what you were doing in the cockpit, it seemed busy in there.”
Ray puffed out his chest. “I’m a bounty hunter! I seek the scum of the universe and clean them! We just needed some help from Leph and Co.”
“A bounty hunter… We aren’t in danger, right?”
“Nah, Leph’s got it under control, besides, I never let bystanders come to harm!”
They walked in silence for a while, neither knowing what to say. Ray finally spoke up. “Shit, I don’t know what you’re supposed to say to a daughter you never knew you had! I don’t think this is a good idea.”
Leena’s face fell. “What?”
“I mean… I’m going to have to leave, I have a job. Maybe we should just…”
Leena was about to get angry at him, when she realized he might be right. He missed nineteen years of her life, he couldn’t just jump in now, it was too late. “You’re right.”
“Wait, I am?”
Leena nodded. “I’m the pilot on this ship, we’ll work together, but I won’t expect you to be a father. That position is already filled.”
Ray nodded as well, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. “I’m OK with that. I just wanted to say one thing: … I regret not being there.”
He looked her dead in the eye, and she knew he wasn’t lying. “…Thanks.”
To his surprise, she gave him a hug, a brief one. “Hey! What was that for?”
Leena shrugged. “I never got to hug my biological father.”
He looked confused. “It’s on my bucket list.” Leena said.
Ray felt the ship come out of hyperspace. “Looks like we’re here. Come on, let’s get back to the cockpit.”
Back on the cockpit, Leph and Serleah were looking into their screens intently, Meryl hovering above them. “Are you absolutely sure?”
“It’s clear as day, Texas Red gave us the slip.” Leph said.
Meryl slammed her paw on the bulkhead. “Shit! That slime ball…”
Ray caught her paw before she smote the wall again. “Hey, never make a job personal.”
She glared at him. “I told you that on our first job.”
“And you were right.”
Leena walked over to Leph. “I’d like to take my station now.”
Leph jumped up. “Sure thing, peach. We’ve been chasing a guy called Texas Red, you heard of him?”
Leena looked at the screen. A small chunk of metal was floating in space, probably towards the outer edge of Dead Space. “Yes, actually. I read about him somewhere. He was in prison, right?”
Leph took his seat. “Not anymore, apparently.”
Zach yelled “a-HA!” as power came on to his makeshift weapon tie in station. “Yes! I did it! I mean… We did it.”
Feldoh was about to throw a screw at him when he added the last part. “Yes… anyway, we have access to the Space Beagle’s weapons now. Though it looks like we won’t need them… Texas Red’s shirked the tracking device.”
Meryl punched Ray on the arm. “I told you to hide it better.”
“I had like, eight seconds!”
Leena had an idea, a brilliant one. “Zach, why can’t we normally detect drive fuel fumes?”
Zach scratched his head. “Well, it’s because it’s basically nothing, finding the drive runoff would be like looking for a needle in a cosmic haystack.”
Feldoh chuckled. “That’s a… Colourful expression.”
Leena grinned. “Well, here there is no haystack.”
Leph snapped his fingers. “Leena! Your brain is so sexy right now! Serleah! Find that needle!”
Serleah set the sensors for a very thorough search of the area. “There definitely is a trail here, but it’s been drifting for about an hour. Adjusting for the drift… Leena, set this course.”
She rattled off a string of numbers you wouldn’t bother reading anyway. “Good job, Serleah. Peach, take us away, maximum speed!”
Serleah smirked at Leph. “What, is my brain not sexy too?”
The jump to hyperspace wiped the smile off Serleah’s face, and she barely kept herself from vomiting. Leph barely kept himself from laughing. “Serleah, focus on measuring the age of the trail as we go along, see if we can’t measure weather or not we’re gaining on him.”
Fifteen minutes passed, the blackness outside making it seem as though they were static, the blackness causing any observer to look away after not too long. Serleah checked a graph she was constructing. “Well, it seems like the age of the drive runoff relative to the time it was produced is steadily getting lower, we are definitely gaining on him. But there’s something strange about this, if his ship was able to avoid capture for so long, it would need to be faster than a fully loaded cargo ship.”
Ray walked over and checked the graph. “Hmm. We did get a few shot off at him in out last encounter, we must have hit something.”
Serleah shrugged. “We’ll find out soon enough, we’re only twenty minutes behind him, he’s only making L^3.”
Leena checked her console. “We’ll reach the border of the anomaly before that. There are a couple of planets nearby that can sustain life, none of them have any colonies or intelligent species though.”
“He may make a run for it, try to repair his ship. He doesn’t know we’re behind him after all.”
As they arrived at the edge of the anomaly, it was clear that a ship had passed through the film not too long ago. Serleah looked at her scans, a smile spreading across her face. “He didn’t go back into hyperspace, his ion trail is as clear as day, heading for the nearest planet.”
Ray grabbed his coat from where it rested. “After him! We’ll get the bastard this time!”
Leena carefully adjusted the drive for a very brief jump that would bring them alongside Texas Red’s ship, seemingly from nowhere. Serleah braced herself, and Leena engaged the drive for a short five seconds. When they came out of hyperspace, they were directly alongside Texas Red’s ship. Leph sprang up, captaining a ship was never dull for him, quite the opposite, everything he did was a constant source of excitement. “Open fire with the particle accelerator cannons! Target the weapons!”
Feldoh looked through the manual viewfinder, necessary due to the arrangement they had. Before he fired at the ship’s weapon array, he swore he could see Texas Red, in his underwear, staring in disbelief out a window at The Frontier and the Space Beagle. The cannons glowed, then two blue streams of pure energy shot out, carving a swath across the weapons of Texas Red’s ship, smashing the particles together so that they were so dense they appeared to vanish, but in reality they were simply squished back into the ship, the metal glowing white hot. So powerful was this blast, that some of the metal was smashed into different elements, which decayed quickly. Texas Red was not about to stick around for round two, and he powered up his ion engine ad pushed it to its limit, heading into the nearby planet. Ray jumped up and down. “After him! Meryl, we’re going down there after him in the Space Beagle.”
Leena piloted The Frontier into an orbit, and by the time they were ready, Texas Red had already landed. Ray rummaged around in his coat and pulled out a shotgun. “Leph, we could use some extra paws.” He pumped the shotgun.
Serleah ogled the gun in Ray’s paws. “Is that… “The Last Shotgun”?”
Ray grinned. “Good eye, there. Yep. This is the last chemically propelled projectile weapon produced on Atriea. She’s never let me down yet.”
Meryl pulled Ray along as she rolled her eyes. “God, sometimes I wonder if you’ve got some kind of gun fetish.”
Serleah followed them. “Leph, I’m going with you.”
Leph was still sitting in his chair. “Uhh… OK. Zach, you’ve got command. Oh, and Leena?”
She looked up. Leph messed with her head fur. “Fancy flying there, peach.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
The Space Beagle barely flew, but it got them through the atmosphere safely enough. On the way, Ray and Serleah sat polishing their guns, Ray with his shotgun and Serleah with her less impressive energy pistol. Leph could see, even as she piloted the ship, that Meryl also had a holstered gun, and was tapping it absentmindedly. “Hey, I don’t have a weapon.”
Ray tossed him a pistol he pulled from his coat. “There.”
Leph looked at the tiny thing, and Serleah chuckled. “What is that, a .38 special?”
Ray laughed. “Ha ha! You really know your gun history. I’m guessing you worked security somewhere?”
“Yep, on a cargo ship, for four years.”
Leph turned the gun over in his paws. “So… is it a .38 special, or…”
Serleah looked at him like he had just grown a second head. “The .38 special Is a four hundred year old gun, famed for its shittyness. But yeah, that’s pretty much its equivalent.”
“Great.”
With a bump, the Space Beagle landed on the surface of the planet, throwing up dust and debris. Everyone locked and loaded their weaponry, and stepped towards the ramp. Meryl opened the door, and they stepped out into the dusty desert air. The sun beat down on them as they trekked along the sand dunes, the heat was sweltering. Leph wiped his brow. “I can’t believe Terra is full of deserts. If Atriea was this hot, we wouldn’t have evolved to have fur. That’s a weird mental image.”
Leph’s odd comment garnered a glance from Serleah. “You alright there? Heat getting to you?”
Leph waved his paw. “Nah.”
Ray pointed towards a flat plain of sand. A ship rested there, silent and still. “There he is. I can taste the gold now.”
The flat plain was surrounded by dunes, and so they lay on the closest dune and watched the ship. Nothing happened, the ship was dead, and no one came out. Meryl studied the ship through a pair of binoculars. “Maybe he walked into the desert?”
Ray stood up. “He’s not that stupid, he must be inside.”
Carefully, they surrounded the ship, silently. The doors were closed, and showed no evidence of ever being open. Serleah walked along the outside of the ship as the rest tried to pry the doors open. She noticed an alcove in the side of the ship, with a hatch inside. It was strange to see, the hatch was open, and the inside showed signs of explosive decompression. The realization hit Serleah like a freight train: it was an escape pod. She ran back up the dunes towards the ship. “Guys! Texas Red used an escape pod! I don’t know how I missed it, but if he gets to the ship…”
It was too late. Texas Red stood on the cockpit of The Frontier, a laser pistol with twenty notches on it pointed at Leena’s head. Zach tried his best to keep cool, attempting to talk him down. “Slow down, there. You don’t want to do anything you’ll regret.”
Texas Red pressed the gun harder against Leena’s temple, her face a mask of fear. Feldoh moved towards the door. Texas Red pointed at him. “Ah ah ah! No one moves. I wouldn’t hesitate to kill any one of you, but someone would hear the shot. You, fox, take us away from the planet, and don’t try anything, your life is worth nothing to me.”
Leena didn’t move. Feldoh looked at the situation and saw history repeating itself. He put a paw behind his back. “Leena, do what he says.”
Zach took a step closer as Leena set an escape course. “I’m interested in hearing your rationale about that, Texas Red. Can I call you Texas?”
Texas Red glared at him. “My real name is Robbins.”
Zach spread his arms. “Robbins, nice to meet you. I’m Zach. I’d like to hear why our lives don’t matter.”
Robbins smiled. “First of all, you’re all Atrieans.”
Zach felt his skin. “Did I forget to wear my fur today?”
“You’re no better. You’ve clearly lived with these people for too long. You act like them. When was the last time you celebrated your birthday?”
“We don’t…” Zach frowned.
Robbins chucked, then laughed. “You don’t celebrate your birthday, because you’re an Atriean.”
Zach shrugged. “So what? Atrieans are intelligent beings, just like you.”
Robbins nodded. “Yes, and then we come to my second reason. My work is very important, I must continue it!”
As this exchange was going on, Feldoh inched closer and closer to the closest console.
Zach walked around Robbins so that his attention would be away from Feldoh. “Oh?”
“I am on the verge of a revolutionary discovery!”
He leaned closer to Zach. “Immortality.”
It was Zach’s turn to laugh. “That’s a pipe dream.”
“If it was, would I do all this? I am so close to making Humans immortal, and finally recognized as the superior race.”
Leena managed to speak. “Immortality is a curse. Being cognizant for long enough would break a person.”
Robbins pressed the gun harder still. “That is part of the brilliance of my research, It protects against this, you’ll see! You’ll see!”
Feldoh switched on the intercom, and every word spoken was heard throughout the ship. Unfortunately, the intercom beeped when it came on. Robbins whirled around. “What did you do you miserable furry?!”
Feldoh held up his paws. “Nothing!”
But they all could hear the reverb as every word echoed throughout the ship. Robbins was furious. “You idiot! Now you will watch your friend die!”
The next few events happened quickly and at the same time, as Robbins whirled around to shoot Leena, Rackham came bursting through the door, swinging a box. This caused Robins to flinch, but he still shot Leena, who ended up on the floor. Rackham roared a mighty roar and threw the box at Robbins, smashing it over his head. Robbins sprawled on the floor, and Rackham jumped on him, holding him up and punching his face repeatedly. “You son of a bitch! You shot her! You…”
He stopped punching. Robbins’ face was bloody and bruised even after the short time, and he coughed blood onto Rackham’s shirt. Feldoh was crouching next to Leena as he looked her over. “You OK?”
Leena was clutching her ear. “He missed by an inch. Ow…”
She let go of her ear, it was burned, and a semicircle shape had been punched into it. Feldoh sighed with relief. “Well, at least the laser cauterized the wound. Rackham! Leena’s fine! Let him go.”
Rackham took the laser pistol and tossed Robbins onto the ground. Leph, Serleah, Ray and Meryl burst through the door, guns at the ready. Leph saw Leena on the ground, and he rushed over. “Leena! God, what happened?! Your ear…”
He crouched beside her. “It’s nothing, Leph. Just a flesh wound- Oof!”
Leph hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry for letting him get so far. I should have seen it coming! He could have killed you…”
Robbins coughed and staggered up. “You brute… do you know what… you’ve done?”
Rackham grabbed him and pushed him at Ray. “Here’s your quarry. Take him and go.”
Ray produced a pair of paw cuffs from his coat and bound Robbins. “Alright creep, you’re letting me retire.”
He gave the cuff’s lead to Meryl. “Take him to the ship and send a message to the Solar Federation. Use the code word, don’t want any other bounty hunters to show up.”
Ray sat by Leena, still locked in Leph’s embrace, as Meryl dragged Robbins off. “Well, I’ll be leaving now. Maybe I’ll visit you sometime.”
Leph let go of Leena and held out his paw. “Ray, I know we don’t see eye to eye, but… good luck.”
Ray laughed and shook his paw. “Thanks. Take good care of Leena. Goodbye.”
He stood and ran after Meryl. Leph looked at Leena’s ear again. “Man, and I really liked your ears too…”
She felt the edges of the wound. “I think it would look cool… a chip in my ear.”
Leph helped her up, even though she didn’t need help. “Let’s continue on, shall we?”
She took her seat. “Yep.”
Feldoh took his station, some small part of him was healed, seeing that he was able to, at least this time, prevent disaster.
Light years away, back in Dead Space, a single metal plate floated in the blackness, a battery powered running light flashing on its surface. The plate had fallen off The Frontier during flight, and now it drifted towards the edge of the anomaly. The running light blinked out momentarily, as if something had passed in front of it. The plate was abruptly engulfed with blackness, then gone. Not a trace of it remained.
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 101px
File Size 62 kB
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