TWO

A Violent Storm Brews

I let my injured arm rest at my side after seeing my assailants body lying on the floor; being sure to keep my pistol in the fire-ready position in my other hand.

Before I had the chance to approach the body and find out his mission and who sent him; I heard a group of people who I can only assume are law enforcement responding to the noise. Moments after the initial boot stomping down the hall three men came from the left side of the hallway and three came from the right side; presumably in an attempt to pinch my now dead assailant. Each of the men were wearing standard issue Orion crisis gear; titanium-carbon weave jacks and nano-particle steel helmets with tech readouts almost as detailed as my own.

At this point it was clear to me that this was not an isolated incident; ordinarily, Orion never gears out their officers like this unless it’s for a high level terror event.

Once the officers made it to my door four of the men trained their weapons on the corpse while the fifth started inspecting the body and the sixth began to approach me, very clearly surprised that I was still breathing. The officer confronting me was obviously new to the force as I could see his brown, panicked eyes darting back and forth as he examined the data on his observational readout.

After an incredibly brief moment the officer realized my name and position then proceeded to stiffen his posture and address me, “Investigator Keyis, are you alright?”

Initially I was confused as I had almost forgotten about the wound I received earlier. After collecting my thoughts and finding the young man’s name through my implant I responded, “Yes, Officer Magsun, I’m fine; just some psycopath looking for blood.”

Magsun’s face was immediately flooded with concern, “Well, Investigator...” He paused for a moment, trying to collect himself before continuing, “This... This wasn’t a single occurrence.”

“What do you mean?” I responded, as earlier I had only hoped that Orion had just changed protocol and started sending officers in full gear; after all, I hadn’t been part of the officer’s corps in quite some time.

“Sir, it seems that some cult has been confirmed to have committed at least seven separate attacks just this morning”

On the inside it felt like my heart sank straight down to my feet, I hoped internally against all hope that this was nothing more than some random assassin hired by someone I put away sometime in the past. Trying my best to conceal my internal panic and devastation I replied with a stone cold detached voice, “Who?”

Still very apparently shaken himself from the morning’s events and slightly stunned from my relatively vague and immediate response, Magsun replied, “Who, Sir?”

I snapped back immediately, “Who was killed? I want a list, first to last report, names and stations.”

Magsun’s posture tightened even further, finally realizing the true weight of this days events.

“Yes sir, I’ll compile the list immediately.” Magsun let out with as much confidence and surety as he could muster.

I replied to him as calm as possible, attempting not to worry him further, “Good, let me know the second the list is prepared.”

Magsun saluted me and went straight off to compile the list of important dead; I went over to the group surrounding my now deceased assailant. I took three steps toward the group and immediately the man examining the body stood to greet me.

The man before me was a bit taller than the rest of his unit and a little broader chested; green eyes with ice white hair in a standard high and tight cut.

The ice haired man spoke with surety and professionalism, “Greetings, Investigator Keyis. I see you’re one of the lucky few among the elite to survive this day’s events.” After his greeting he looked at me longer than usual, with an accompanying grin; as if he expected me to recognize him.

Sure enough, I did; the man standing before me was Alex Harre. Alex and I went to the Orion Investigator Success School; essentially nothing more than a confirmation school for all freshly graduated investigators to attend. After everything he and I had seen and done together; we were practically brothers despite our differences in philosophy. You see, Alex was always a little more of a biological fundamentalist; he was just never a big fan of implants, injections, or any serious form of augmentation. He dropped out of the success school once he realized how many augmentations would have to be made to him.

Not wanting to waste any time, we immediately started to close the short distance between us. Once we were close enough we reached out with our arms and grabbed each others forearms and pulled into a one arm hug as a show of respect and brotherhood.

We hadn’t seen each other in over five years; neither of us knowing if the other was still alive and it felt like the world disappeared for just a moment. I was the first to break from our embrace and with an accompanying huge smile I spoke, “You son of a bitch, you’re actually still alive!”

After an entertained laugh Alex replied, “You’re damn right I’m still kickin’! Did you really think the streets would take little old me?” His face was overtaken by a grin after speaking.

“Of course not! I’m just glad to see you again brother. So, any idea who Mr. assassin on the floor here is?” I was trying my best to be as serious as possible and immediately divert the conversation towards work despite my joy.

The smile on Alex’s face quickly faded following my response, “Damn, you investigators just can’t get your mind off of work, huh?” He let out a light sigh before continuing, “Yeah, we got an I.D on him Urik, some small time criminal by the name of Blade. We’re assuming this is some alias he took on before transitioning into his criminal life. I’m working on getting a solid match for him.”

“Thanks, Alex, you never let me down. What exactly was he into? I can cross reference his crimes and alias on the Orion petty criminal database.”

“Nothing serious, never even a violent crime. Mostly local drug and weapon trades a bit of smuggling here and there. It looks like he’s always operated here on Achaia however.” Alex’s shifted his gaze away from me and focused on the body again; searching for anything that may lead us to this Blade guy’s true identity.

I nodded affirmatively and continued on for the sake of protocol, “Thank you, Officer Harre.” I turned around right away to walk back inside my apartment; immediately my ocular implant began automatically searching Orion records. Even processing hundreds of entries it was going to take a while to find him and his record among the hundreds of millions of other entries.

“Investigator Keyis!” Officer Magsun Yelled across the room as soon as I passed the threshold.

“Yes, Officer Magsun? What is it?” I was almost positive that he was going to give me the list I asked for earlier but I’m not the kind of person to assume one’s intentions.

“The list you asked for, sir. I just finished compiling the records for all nine attacks.” I could see he was trying his hardest to keep his composure, it was admirable but you could practically see his nerves at this point.

I made an attempt to ease his tension by transitioning to a slightly more casual tone, “Alright, kid. What have you got for me?”

“I have completed compiling the list of victims Investigator.”

“Good, give me the names.” While replying to Magsun I set my interface to start downloading the list of names as he spoke.

“Okay. First we have Michua Mesand, political ambassador from Ahmetos III, Chenda Bani, Judge of the high court of Mori Prime, Gunga Nuni, Orion garrison officer on Roido, Cynthia Robail, Orion Investigator on New Mercury, Markeith Staylee, planetary rehabilitation director on Eros, Trada H’rani, Dock-master on Lahmu Station, and Linda Henders, Orion Investigator on New Terra.” In his panicked state, Magsun decided to try and complete the run down all in one breath and left him a little winded.

Hearing the list made me more than just a little upset. Trada H’rani and I were great friends and we had saved each others lives on more than one occasion. I soon remembered a gift from Trada from our last encounter then responded, “Good work Magsun, take a breath and get back to your unit. I’ll be back outside in just a moment; I need to get something from my closet.”

Magsun immediately saluted and tensed his entire body into attention, then walked towards the front door to join the officers he arrived with.

Once he left, I made my way back to my still open closet. Once there I set my eyes on a small black box which has no identifying marks other than a bio-lock over the top. The box sits on the shelf just to the right of where my pistol would ordinarily sit. I laid my right hand down over the bio-lock and as soon as my whole hand made contact bright green scan line started from the base of my palm and quickly worked it’s way to the end of my middle finger. The contents of the box were sealed with a vacuum so once the scan was complete the top of the box separated from the bottom with an oddly satisfying pfft. The top of the box moved upwards three and a half millimeters then moved backwards far enough to clear the bottom half entirely guided by small arms along the inside.

Moments later I could hear a faint nearly inaudible whirring sound. Following very quickly after the whirring sound was a tiny little robot no larger than the nail on your thumb. He didn’t seem to be anything special until I noticed a small screen mounted to his front side. After a couple seconds the screen struggled to flicker to life with a light blue tint then for a couple moments I heard what sounded like an attempt to speak “Hee—ll—he—Hello...”

The attempt at speech was quickly silenced with a grainy electronic noise. Immediately the screen flickered again, but this time the blue light was much brighter and it launched itself out of the box powered by a tiny little jet on his bottom side. The tiny robot leveled it’s body even with my face and as it did so a small face appeared on the screen. Right away the robot attempted to speak one more time, “Greetings, Master Keyis. I apologize for my little malfunction earlier.”

I had no idea how to respond to this little robot floating in front of me. I’ve had the box for quite some time and I just never opened it, all Trada told me about it was, “You’ll need this one day Urik. You will know the time when that day comes.”

“I have been commissioned to you by master creator Trada. I am what is known as a hydrogen assisted personal interpreter, but you can call me H.A.P.I if that suits you better, master.” With only a brief pause after his words he glanced down at my arm where I was shot and spoke again, “Master, you’re bleeding. Allow me to assist you.”

Before I had a chance to respond to his request to “assist” he had already darted down to my wound and began spraying a strange smelling iridescent aerosol. After spraying the strange aerosol, H.A.P.I looked back up to me then back to the wound several times before letting out an inquisitive, “Hmmm...”

Slightly concerned from both H.A.P.I’s reaction and the fact that my wound was now stinging like a thousand bees just assaulted my arm I asked, “What the hell was that, H.A.P.I?”

H.A.P.I did one more double take before speaking again, “Well... I don’t think that was supposed to happen.” He flew back up to eye level with me, “You should probably clean that out now, master.”

“What? Why, H.A.P.I?” The concern only grew more apparent in my exasperation.

“Well, it seems that oil doesn’t do for humans what it does for me. I apologize master, fresh oil always makes me feel so much better. I suppose I have quite a bit to learn about organic life. A lesson learned I suppose.” The little face on his screen shifted to one that seemed to depict sadness and disappointment.

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief now knowing that it wasn’t some mystery fluid that was going to make me grow a third arm or suddenly become a one armed man. I reached for the sleeve of my still hanging jacket, wiped away the oil H.A.P.I sprayed, then spoke after a quick laugh, “It’s okay H.A.P.I. I just need you to explain why Trada made you for me and why he felt you were so important.”

The disappointed face immediately disappeared from H.A.P.I’s face and was replaced with a smile, “I am important?” He let out enthusiastically before continuing and resetting his face to a neutral expression, “I apologize, master, but I have no idea what makes me so special. Master creator Trada simply told me to take you to his hangar on Lahmu Station and that I would know where to go once we arrive.”

Cryptic as all hell, even in death I thought to myself. I let out a deep and quick sigh before speaking, “Alright, H.A.P.I, it looks like we’re going to do a little bit of traveling together.”

H.A.P.I’s face immediately returned to the same smile he had earlier, “Fantastic, Master Keyis! We should depart at once!”

“Hold on just a minute Hap. I’ve got to get this wound patched up first and I need to request a ship and departure permissions from the Orion Grand Warden.”

The Grand Warden actually isn’t as special a job as the title implies. Of course, that’s basically Orion’s specialty; making simple jobs seem incredibly, well, grand. The Warden is basically the guy sitting in an office on each Orion held planet that every investigator has to go to so they can request ships and departure permissions.

“Oh, okay Master Keyis. Then we will leave whenever you are prepared.” H.A.P.I’s face once again returned to the neutral face from before then he darted back down to rest on top of the box he came out of.

I gave H.A.P.I a quick nod of affirmation then reached for my first aid kid which was mounted to the wall of the closet directly to left of where my jacket was hanging. The kit itself was just a white plastic box with a red cross painted across the front; witch was mostly recessed into the wall. I flipped the latch that was mounted to the bottom, and assisted by a set of springs the cover flew open. Inside of the box there was a reasonably sized roll of gauze and a can containing antibiotic aerosol spray.

I grabbed for the can of antibiotics first then grabbed the roll of gauze and set it down of the shelf right by H.A.P.I’s box. I started shaking the can of antibiotics then after a few shakes moved the switch just below the spray nozzle to the left and started spraying it over my wound. The spray left an apparent but completely clear film over the wound. I picked the gauze back up from the shelf and unrolled about a meter and a half to apply then ripped the end and set the gauze back in the first aid box along with the spray. After closing the box I quickly wrapped my wound in the gauze and the end sealed itself.

Right away I looked over at H.A.P.I and spoke, “Are you ready?”

H.A.P.I’s face changed again, this time to a face with a much bigger smile than before, “Of course, Master Keyis! I will follow you wherever you wish to go!”

H.A.P.I’s enthusiasm was actually starting to make me grin. I reached for my jacket and spoke, “Alright H.A.P.I, looks like we’re off to speak with the Warden.”

As I was putting my jacket on H.A.P.I darted up and away from his box with an excited spin almost too fast for me to notice. “Okay Master, let us travel!”

Next Chapter: THREE : Chasing The Storm