Chapter 5

“I told you, I’m fine!” Jim’s voice echoed down the corridor obviously furious.

Erika and I glanced at each other as we continued walking toward his hospital room. When we had been admitted to Protectorate Medical, we had been looked at, stimmed, and then unceremoniously sent on our way. The Senator, on the other hand, was kept overnight. We had come early to pick him up for his ceremonial fly over of the training grounds. Without so much as an explanation, we were sent away and told to come back in a few hours. Jim called Erika before we reached the car park and demanded to know what was taking us so long.

About face – back inside.

“He sounds a little on the upset side,” Erika observed.

“You’d think so, but that’s not it at all,” I replied.

“Oh?” she played. “Please, Big Brother, could you explain more? That’s what it sounds like to me.”

I slowed our pace. “That’s just because you don’t know him as well as I do. You see, he’s actually extremely upset.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. He’s the type of guy that holds all his emotions inside. So when they start to eke out, it comes out in small doses until finally,” I made an explosion noise which puffed out my cheeks and made an explosion gesture with my hands.

I nodded a greeting to Laser Brain as we approached, currently standing watch outside the Senator’s room. He had on his helmet with the visor down and had his hand on his gun. He returned my nod curtly. I read that as if he had been recently yelled at. I raised a questioning eyebrow at him and he shook his head once.

“Escape fighter on the roof?” Erika whispered to him as she knocked on Jim’s door.

Laser Brain opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the door being ripped open. Erika and I both took a half step back. Jim stood in the door in a dark grey suit that matched our flight suits. “What in Sol’s name took you two so long?” he screamed.

Erika was quicker than I was in her reaction. She snapped to attention and saluted. I imitated her as fast as my body could move. I think I did a good job. “Sorry, Sir,” she said. “We were sent away the first time we tried to enter.”

Jim visibly calmed himself. “At ease.” We did. “You should know better by now that I give you orders, not some cursed nurse or doctor.”

“Forgive me, Senator,” I braved, “but it was actually Celina that sent us away.”

Celina Lacy stepped into view behind her grandfather. She had his piercing grey eyes and slight frame, but where he had once been blonde, Celina had brown hair, lightened in areas and bounced about her shoulders. Her hair was also thicker and waved instead of curled. Where his face was kind, hers was filled with sharp lines that elongated her features. It made her look much more serious and imposing. She was shorter than him by several centimeters but still maintained his overwhelming presence. In the last year of being his assistant, she had really grown into the position and become an incredible politician herself. Rumors had even started springing up that she was going to run for Governor in the next election.

But she shared three very important features with her grandfather. The first of the three was her caring heart. The second was her smile that, like Jim, instantly set you at ease. And the final and most important feature was her incredible intelligence.

Obviously overhearing me throw her under the skids, Celina looked right at me and said calmly, “Traitor.”

I winked at her.

Jim spun and glared at her. She crossed her arms, cocked a hip, and glared back. “You aren’t going,” she said. “Our number one priority is keeping you safe until the vote at the end of the week. This is unneeded pomp.”

“Pomp?” Jim roared. He spun on us again and looked at each of us in turn. “Did my assistant just give me an order and then follow it up by telling me my favorite flight related activity was pomp?” He didn’t wait for an answer and spun back to Celina. He took two intimidating steps forward and put his face right to hers. She didn’t seem affected. When he spoke, his voice was low and shook with rage. “How long have you been Senator? How long have you been working for this beautiful world of ours? How long have you been trying desperately to stand up in the face of every opposition, including terrorism, to prove that nothing would scare you away? How is it, do you think, that I was able to be in office for 5 consecutive terms and still be around at the age of one-hundred and two? The answer to every one of those questions is the same.”

“What’s that?” she asked, obviously calm.

“Red?” he prompted.

I knew exactly what it was he wanting me to say. I had certainly heard enough tirades like this one while assigned to him. “Shut the hell up!” I responded.

The Senator nodded, still inches from Celina’s face. “That’s right,” he confirmed in a quiet voice. “Shut the hell up.” He turned away from her and started toward us. I could count on one hand the number of times I had seen Jim get that upset outside of a political arena. This argument had obviously been going on for a lot longer than what we had witnessed. He stopped right at the door and said in a forced calm, “Get me the gret out of here.”

A black powder gun explosion went off to our left at the same time Laser Brain’s head snapped sideways toward the door were Jim was standing. Instantly, Laser Brain crumpled. Blood had sprayed everywhere. Instinctively, Erika dove forward and tackled the Senator back into the room and to the ground. I spun toward the direction the gun sound came from, lifted my own, and clicked the power on in one smooth motion. Two people, a man and a woman, stood far down the hall with guns held high. They were shoving doctors and nurses out of their way trying to get a clear shot.

Both were dressed in the same orange jumpsuits assigned to the hospital’s robotic department. She had bright red hair, the color of Earth’s roses, and he had the same black as the guy I had taken down last night. The two of them wore darkened visors that covered their eyes from ear to ear and showed gritted teeth.

One larger orderly wouldn’t move and wouldn’t get down. It looked like he was frozen in fear. The woman shot him low in the leg, causing it to buckle. As soon as he started to fall, I took a large step to my left to gain cover from a corner and pulled the trigger twice. My first shot lifted her hair off her shoulder and my second shredded the shoulder of her shooting arm. She screamed. I didn’t get to see what happened after that because I had pulled completely behind the corner.

Bullets started to chew away at the permacrete next to my head and I was force to step further from the corner. I looked at the doorway to the Senator’s room and Erika was setting to poke out and fire. With one hand she held her gun at the ready, with her other she was counting down finger by finger. On one, she popped out and fired three shots in quick succession then ducked back into the room. The bullets that were eating away my protective corner stopped instantly, and I took my turn to poke out and fire. But when I cleared the corner, both assailants were down on the ground. The woman was holding her wound and rolling back and forth. The man was motionless.

“Valkyrie!” I called. “Get the Senator to the escape craft!” I don’t know if she listened, but I did hear running footsteps behind me as I quickly moved forward, keeping my gun trained on the two attackers. In the ensuing silence, people were starting to lift their heads or poke them out of rooms. “Back inside!” I yelled. “Close all doors! Clear the hall! Venusian Protectorate!”

Scrambling and slamming doors started echoing up and down the corridor. In the time it took me to get to the gun wielding duo I called in and reported. The same guy I had talked to last night that sounded so familiar answered.

“Sorry, Red, we did not get that, please repeat,” he said.

“Attack at Protectorate Medical,” I repeated, this time more calmly. I was standing over the two and kicked their guns to the walls. “Senator and Valkyrie on their way to the escape craft. Both assailants downed and covered. Laser Brain took a head shot, likely dead, and we have a civilian down as well.”

“Affirmative, Red,” I heard accompanied by a strange crackle. “Report coming in from Valkyrie now. Standby.”

Suddenly Celina stepped up next to me. I jumped to my side and pointed my gun at her before I realized it was her. I quickly jerked it up and away from her, then returned my attention to the threat. “Sol, Celina! What are you doing here? You should be with the Senator.”

She glanced up at me then looked back to the two on the ground. “I don’t fit in the fighter with the Senator and a pilot, so I always get left behind. Besides, the threat’s over.”

I didn’t take my eyes or my gun off the two on the ground while I replied. “It is not. Are both of them dead? Are any that aren’t dead in custody? If you find yourself answering no to either or any of these questions, chances are the threat is actually not over.”

In my peripheral vision I could see her glance up at me. “Fair enough. But this is my chance to find out some information on what the gret is going on here.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 6