Kill Shot: A Remnant of the Commonwealth, Book Two (7 page)

Chapter 8

It took another three hours to reach the Hasan point. From there they created the wormhole and began the two-week journey to Sargas. Aaron spent the last two hours on the bridge and was pleased when the ship was officially away from Pocal.

He left the bridge via the ladder that led to
B deck. There also was a small platform that could be used to transport people or gear from B deck to the bridge. The platform was rarely used; in fact, the only time it had been used was when there was a line of people climbing the ladder.

Aaron was tired an
d considered going to his room, but then he remembered the promise he had made to Susan and turned his steps toward the galley. He had to go down another ladder to reach C deck where the galley was located.

The most wonderful smell was emanating from the kitchen
, and Aaron’s stomach rumbled. He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten.

The mess was empty and Aaron stuck his head into the galley. Both Molly and Eve were there; Eve was cutting vegetables
, and Molly was stirring a big pot.

“Something smells good,” Aaron said.

Both women smiled at him, but it was Molly who answered. “It’s stew. We got some fresh vegetables on Pocal.”

Aaron smiled, but silently he wondered what the meat was. He wasn’t picky, but he missed the things he had grown up eating.

Eve quit cutting and set the knife down. “Here, let me get you a bowl.”

“I don’t mean to rush you,” Aaron said
. He felt like he was interrupting, or perhaps invading her domain.

“It’s no bother,” Eve answered. She wiped her hands
, grabbed a large bowl, and dipped a huge portion of stew for him.

“Thanks,” he said, taking the bowl from her. He hesitated in the doorway. “You did good on Bathia,” he said. “That was a great find.”

Eve beamed at him. “Does that mean I get my full share?”

Aaron nodded. “You deserve it. From now on, you get an equal share.”

“Thanks, Captain!” Eve said, her grin growing even bigger.

Molly dropped her spoon and hugged the older woman.

Aaron retreated to the mess and took a seat at the nearest table. He cautiously tried the stew and was pleasantly surprised with how good it was. It didn’t take long before he was scrapping the bottom of the bowl. He momentarily considered going back for seconds but decided not to. He stood up and placed his bowl in the dirty dish bin.

Aaron passed Eric and Thomas on the way out; the two still looked grumpy
, and Aaron barely slowed as he passed by. The two were not good for crew morale. Perhaps he would have to give serious thought to dumping them.

Russell and Jessica also walked through the mess door. Unlike Eric and Thomas, Jessica and Russell were all smiles. They held hands as they walked. The two had been an item for some time now and, except for ship’s duties, were rarely apart. Perhaps it was true love, or maybe it was just loneliness; either way they seemed happy.

He passed them with a wave and headed toward the starboard ladder. His cabin was located on B deck, so he had to go up a level.

He was a few feet shy of the ladder when Kyle called out to him.

“Captain, do you have a moment?”

Aaron turned
to see Kyle leading the humanoid robot, CAC, toward him. “Of course,” he said good-naturedly.

Kyle’s smile slipped a bit as he noticed the Horace Special in a holster on Aaron’s hip.

Aaron glanced down, his eyes following Kyle’s gaze. “Oh, don’t worry about the gun. I picked it up on Pocal and I want to get it and the holster broke in.”

Kyle nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Was there something you wanted?” Aaron asked.

“What? Oh yes.” Kyle motioned toward CAC. “I’ve been busy upgrading some of his circuits and modules, and it’s amazing how much smaller the stuff we use today is.
I’ve added some new capabilities to him. I’ve attached a small recording device inside the cranium that records everything he sees, and he can play it back as necessary. Anyway, the upgrades are going great and I still have a small hollow area in his chest and another in his left leg.”

Kyle cut off speaking and
waited. “And?” Aaron ventured hesitantly.

“Don’t you see?” Kyle asked, looking excited. “We can
use CAC to smuggle small items—a gun, or small amounts of contraband, or whatever. It’s perfect.”

Aaron nodded. It made sense, sort of, but he still didn’t see any reason to get all excited about it. He decided to at least feign enthusiasm so as not to hurt Kyle’s feelings. “Good job,” he said
, and slapped Kyle on the shoulder. He was about to say more when an idea occurred to him. “I want you to work with Terry and find a few places around the ship where we can hide some of the Logan handguns; you know, in case we ever get hijacked or something.”

Kyle
grinned. “I’ll work on getting one hidden in CAC right away.”

“Sounds good,” Aaron said, already turning toward the stairs. He never made it as someone else called out to him.

“We want a word with you!”

Aaron stopped and looked back up the corridor. Eric was marching toward him with Thomas not far behind. He sighed, wondering if he would ever get to his room. “And what can I do for you?”

“What’s this shit I hear about Eve getting a full share?” Eric demanded. His face was almost snarling, even angrier than normal.

Kyle’s eyes were wide and he
backed up, trying to get out of the way.

“What about it?” Aaron demanded. Eric’s demeanor was getting old
, and the anger seemed to be wearing off on him. “She deserved it. Not that it should matter to you.”

“Fucking cook is getting a full share and we only get
a three-quarter share? No fucking way!” Eric’s eyes narrowed in anger, and his lips pulled back, exposing his teeth, almost like an animal. “Those fancy, new exo-suits are nice, but they aren’t going to drive themselves.”

Aaron was not intimidated. If anything, he was just about done with Eric’s attitude. “If you don’t like it,” he said quietly, “feel free to leave at the next port.” With that, he turned and took a step toward the stairs.

Eric’s huge hand grabbed Aaron’s right arm and spun him around. “Wait just a fucking minute. I’m not done.”

The fury seemed to erupt from within Aaron and he just reacted. He brought his left arm up and down hard on Eric’s forearm, knocking the man’s hand free.

Eric staggered a bit trying to regain his balance, but Aaron didn’t give him the chance. Instead, Aaron turned sideways and kicked out with his right leg. The blow caught Eric in the chest and sent him flying backward.

“Hold on!” Thomas bellowed, trying to get between the two fighting men. It was his misfortune that he also grabbed Aaron by the arm. Perhaps he was just trying to stop the fight, but if that was the case, then he’d picked the wrong way.

Aaron was still livid about the way Eric had addressed him and then tried to manhandle him,
and Thomas’s clutch on his arm only angered him all the more. He jabbed his left fist and caught Thomas in the throat.

Thomas’s eyes
bulbed and he let go of Aaron. Both of his hands flew to his throat.

Aaron brought his knee up into
Thomas’s groin and then shoved him backwards into the bulkhead. Thomas slid to the ground and lay there gasping.

Kyle had stepped back out of the way and he too was wide-eyed. The robot CAC stood next to Kyle and it alone seemed
unbothered by the situation.

Breathing hard, Aaron turned back to where Eric had fa
llen and a coldness seemed to clinch his insides. Eric was struggling to his feet, and he was pulling the Patterson plasmic from his pocket.

Aaron reacted on instinct. His hand dropped to the butt of his new Horace Special
, and in a flash he drew the gun from its holster.

Eric’s gun was clear of his pocket
, but he still looked wobbly, nearly falling over. Nevertheless, he still held the gun. He was standing sideways, his left side closer to Aaron. It seemed almost in slow motion that he turned, straightening his shoulders toward Aaron.

Still without thinking, Aaron raised his gun to fire. At the last moment, a bit of reason seeped in
, and he altered his shot. His instincts had said to aim for the heart, but Aaron changed that just slightly and fired.

The plasma bolt caught Eric in the shoulder and spun him around, throwing him hard into the bulkhead. The Patterson flew from his hand and clattered to the deck.
Aaron swept the gun back toward Thomas, but he was curled up into a ball with one hand on his throat and the other on his testicles.

An eerie silence settled on the corridor; the only sound was Aaron’s quick breathing. He swallowed, trying to work some moisture into his suddenly dry mouth. He pointed
back down the corridor, toward the galley. “Go get Jessica,” he said breathlessly.

Kyle bobbed his head
then practically flew down the corridor.

Aaron’s heart was threatening to beat right out of his chest. As a milit
ary man who had fought in a war, he had killed many times, but in those instances it had always been the enemy. He had never seriously thought he might have to kill a member of his crew.

Suddenly,
all of those thoughts fled at the arrival of a new thought. Was it starting? He knew that every previous attempt at creating a cyborg had ended with the subject going psychotically insane. Was that happening to him?

Goose bumps broke out across his arms
, and he quickly replayed the events in his mind. He didn’t think he had overreacted. Eric had put his hands on him, which had been the catalyst for the fight. It had escalated with Thomas, until finally Eric had drawn a gun. Slowly, the suffocating fear subsided. Everything he had done was justified, or at least that was what he kept telling himself.

Chapter
9

Even though Jessica and Russell were just down the corridor, it was Susan who arrived first. It seemed a bit strange; she had been up a deck and in her cabin, but still she was the first one there. Aaron was quite sure it hadn’t been the noise that drew her; undoubtedly, it was her telepathic abilities that allowed her to arrive first.

Susan stepped out from the stairwell
, her eyes taking in the scene. She didn’t speak. Instead, instead she stepped over to Thomas’s huddled form and pushed his head back. His eyes were watering and snot ran from his nose. He was gasping for breath, but Susan ignored his obvious pain and felt through the pockets of his jacket. After a moment, she stood up, holding one of the Logan plasmics.

They still hadn’t spoken
, and it felt like only a few heartbeats had taken place since Aaron shot Eric. He was frazzled, unsure of what to do.

Russell and Jessica came sprinting up th
e corridor. They slid to a stop. Russell just stared around at the scene while Jessica stopped to check Eric’s vitals.

“What the hell happened?” Russell demanded.

Aaron opened his mouth to speak, but Jessica cut him off. “Help me! We have to get him to the med bay or he might die.”

Aaron
holstered his gun and hurried forward to help Russell lift Eric’s body. Between the two of them, they managed to half-carry, half-drag Eric’s limp body to the med bay and heaved him heavily onto a bed.

“Out of the way!” Jessica hollered, making both men jump back.

“Anything we can do?” Russell asked.

“Yeah, get the fuck out!” Jessica said, not even slowing to look back at the men.

Neither man needed to be told twice, and they hurried out the med bay door. Every last member of the crew waited for them in the corridor. Most looked wide-eyed and worried. Even CAC stood there, dutifully waiting at Kyle’s side.

Grady stepped through the crowd
carrying Thomas. He stepped between Aaron and Russell and disappeared into the med bay.

“What happened?” Terry demanded. He looked confused.

Kyle and Molly both looked scared. Adam, Susan, and, strangely enough, Eve all looked resigned.

Aaron wasn’t sure how to respond, but he didn’t have to.

“Were you there?” Susan demanded of Kyle.

He nodded, looking around at the assembly.

The med bay door opened and Grady stepped out. He paused there, watching the others.

“They were furi
ous that Eve got a full-share,” Kyle said. “The Captain tried to walk away, but they grabbed him. He hit them and knocked them away. And Eric drew a gun.”

Several people gasped. It was bad enough to attack a ship’s captain, but to draw a gun on him was unimaginable.

Aaron breathed a bit easier; the crew was believing Kyle completely. He had momentarily worried that this could cost him several more members of this crew.

Everyone was still looking around when Kyle spoke again. “I have proof,” he said.

“Proof?” Susan asked. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve been upgrading some of the robots
, and I installed a recorder in CAC.” He motioned to the bot standing beside him. “He should have a complete record of the . . .” he paused, searching for the right word, “incident.”

“CAC,” Susan said, “can we see the replay?”

CAC nodded his head once, in imitation of a human. “Of course.” The bot turned to face an open section of the corridor and a light-blue, three-dimensional image appeared; it was the corridor from just outside the mess.

Absolute silence settled upon the crew. They watched as Eric and Thomas hollered at Aaron and then the brief fight that followed.

Aaron let out a small sigh of relief when the pale, blue gun appeared in the holographic Eric’s hand.

“Son of a bitch,” Terry said in his deep voice.

“What are you going to do?” Eve asked. She was watching Aaron intently.

D
o?
Aaron thought. He hadn’t gotten that far yet. He was just ecstatic that the recorder had backed him up. But as that relief slowly ebbed away, the anger began to come back. He knew what interstellar law had to say about assaulting a ship’s captain. The silence drew out for several moments, and then Aaron took a deep breath. “According to the law, I’m allowed to space them.”

Molly and Kyle both looked shocked, Adam and Russell were nodding, and Susan, Terry, and Eve were just watching him.

“I’m not going to rush to that decision. If I decide that’s what’s to happen, I expect each of you to back me up.”

There was a transparent window allowing those in the corridor to see into the
med bay. The crew gathered around the window to watch Jessica furiously working on Eric. She was working on the more critical of the two patients and had delegated the medical bot to work on Thomas.

Aaron wasn’t sure what to hope for. If Eric died, then there would be no need to space him, and if he lived
, then at least Aaron hadn’t killed a crewmember. He shook his head. The first emotions that had popped up were guilt, fear, and worry. Those feelings were fading fast and an anger was building within.

They continued to stand there for over an hour. All they did was watch. No one spoke, walked away, or anything else. They just waited.

After roughly an hour had passed, the M71 medical bot moved over and the med bay door slid open.

As soon as the doors parted, Jessica shouted, “Aaron, Russell, get in here!”

Both men hesitated a moment in surprise then rushed inside.

“What is it?” Russell demanded as his eyes swept the room.

Jessica paused only long enough to nod her head at Thomas. “He’ll be fine and he’s coming around now. Get him out of here please.”

Aaron came up on the left side of Thomas’s bed while Russell chose the right. Thomas was not fully conscious yet, but his eyes were fluttering and he was groaning.

They each grabbed an arm and pulled him off the table. He was heavy, but between the two of them, and with a little help from Thomas, they got him to move. Thomas wasn’t much help, but they didn’t need too much.

“Where are we taking him?” Russell asked as they stepped out into the corridor.

“We’ll lock him in one of the unused crew cabins,” Aaron answered.

With Susan leading the way, they went up one deck and decided to use the first cabin they came to. Thomas wasn’t exactly a heavy man, but he seemed to get heavier with each step.

Susan opened the door and went in, the three men on her heels. They waited just long enough for Susan to get the bed lowered, and then they dumped Thomas on the un-made bed. Both Russell and Aaron were a little out of breath.

Susan stepped past them and stopped as the bathroom door was opening. “I’ll lock the bathroom door in the next cabin. You guys lock the cabin door behind you.”

Aaron nodded while he motioned Russell out of the cabin.

There was one bathroom for every two cabins, so there was an entrance from the bathroom to both cabins. They didn’t want Thomas to leave his cabin, enter the bathroom, and then enter the other cabin. They wanted him confined in this cabin like it was a cell.
He was free to enter the bathroom but not the other cabin.

Aaron and Russell waited in the corridor for only a moment before Susan appeared.

“Is it done?” Aaron asked.

Susan nodded, but there was a look in her eyes. It was kind of a
What kind of question is that?
look

A
pparently, Russell caught the look as well as it sounded like he snorted or coughed or something. Whatever it was, it probably was meant to cover up laughter.

Regardless, Aaron didn’t acknowledge it and hurriedly led them back to the
med bay. The crew was still there, but now Jessica had joined them.

“How’s your patient?” Aaron asked a bit breathlessly.

“I think he’ll be fine,” Jessica answered. She was standing in the middle of the hall with her arms folded. She looked a bit angry.

“What’s the matter?” Aaron asked.

“They told me he drew a gun on you and you might decide to space them. Is that right?”

Aaron sighed. When he had been in the military, it always seemed like it was the doctors who had problems following orders. He could easily sense Jessica’s disapproval. “That is one possibility under interstellar law. However,” he added hurriedly, “I have not decided what is to happen to them yet.”

A ghost of a smile crossed Jessica’s lips. “You misunderstand my anger,” she said like she, too, could read his thoughts. “If he truly tried to draw a gun on you, then by all means space him, but why didn’t you tell me before I spent over an hour trying to save his life? Could have saved all of us a great deal of time if we had just taken him straight to the airlock.”

That was the absolute last thing that Aaron had expected to hear from Jessica. His forehead wrinkled in surprise
, causing his eyebrows to almost disappear into his hair line.

Jessica snorted, looking from Aaron to Russell. Russell also looked flabbergasted. “What?” she asked. “I don’t like needless killing, but this sounds justified.”

Aaron couldn’t seem to find his voice, so it was Susan who spoke next. “How soon until Eric’s conscious?”

Jessica looked thoughtful. “Well, I had to fuse some of the bones and regenerate a lot of tissue. I’ve got him medicated and was planning on keeping him unconscious for at least three or four days.”

“Sounds good,” Aaron said, finally finding his voice. In truth it was good. It gave him some time to work through what should be done with the two men.

“Thomas’s injuries weren’t that severe. He should be waking up soon and with the medical procedures, he’ll be hungry.”

“I’ll get something ready for him,” Eve said quickly. She made to hurry away but paused at Aaron’s command.

“Stop!” he said. “No one is to go near that cabin unless Susan, Russell, or myself are with you. Absolutely no exceptions. Is that understood?”

Eve and the rest of the crew all nodded their heads.

It took Eve about thirty minutes to get Thomas’s dinner ready. She placed a huge bowl of the stew and half a loaf of bread onto a platter that she had scrounged up and then added a few pieces of fruit. She wasn’t sure what Thomas would like, so she was giving him several choices.

She stepped out of the
kitchen and stopped. She wasn’t surprised in the least to see Aaron, Russell, and Susan waiting on her. They were standing near the tables. “I’m ready,” she said, her tone not betraying her nervousness.

Eve didn’t like the way things had turned out. It was true that it was all Eric and Thomas’s fault, but even so, things could still get worse. She suspected that if they actually spaced the two men, that Aaron would probably lose several other members of his crew. Hell, he might lose her in the process. It wasn’t that she thought the spacing was unjustified, but rather the whole event would leave a cloud over them. It seemed to her that the only way to get rid of the horrible memories might be to just move on. She wasn’t going anywhere without Molly, though.

She set the tray on a small cart she had found in the outfitter shop and followed Aaron and Susan from the galley. Russell brought up the rear.

They had to go
down one deck, and the cart made the ladders an impossibility, so they used the small lift. It wasn’t used much, except for when moving things between decks.

It took less than five minutes
to reach Thomas’s cell.

“What are you doing here?” Aaron asked.

Eve looked up to see who he had spoken to and was surprised to see the robot CAC standing beside the door.

“Sir, Mr. Kyle asked me to wait for you here. He thought you might want to show my recording to
Thomas.” There was an almost disapproving tone in the way he said Thomas’s name.

Robots did not have feelings
, but most humans were uncomfortable around unemotional robots. Manufacturers had long ago learned that building in human tendencies into the voice patterns of the robots made humans accept them more.

“It’s a good idea.”
Aaron motioned on down the corridor. “Step back and I’ll call you in if we need you.” The robot dutifully obeyed. Aaron turned and looked at Eve. “You wait here until we make sure he’s away from the door.”

Eve nodded. Her anxiety was growing by leaps and bounds
.

Aaron, Russell, and Susan stepped closer to the door. Aaron was in the middle, holding a large plasmic handgun. Susan and Russell were on either side and they each held one of the M3 carbines.

Eve hadn’t noticed the carbines before and wondered if Thomas would do something stupid. It appeared he would only get one such chance.

Aaron stepped forward and pushed a button on the console next to the door.

“Open this fucking door!” Thomas’s deep voice boomed out of the small speaker.

“Thomas,” Aaron said slowly, “step away from the door. Go stand next to the bathroom.”