Hard Vacuum 1 (5 page)

The story on the screen changed, and video from the WeaverCorp headquarters appeared.

"Hey, there's those motherfuckers now," Kyra said. "Volume up."

The screen cranked up the sound. "We're here, waiting for the imminent arrival of Darshan Kant, CEO of WeaverCorp and a notorious recluse. Mr Kant hasn't been seen in public for over a decade and...wait, here he comes now."

A small car pulled to the front of the building and a thin man got out, leaning on a cane. Two figures ran from the headquarters to meet him.

The camera focused in, and Kyra recognised them at once. "That's Manik and Manana. Zoom in."

The screen focused and zoomed on the three people, showing them in close-up. Kyra smiled at Manik's funny little walk, and then scowled at Manana's efficient swishing.

Manik and Manana helped Darshan Kant up the steps of the building. He missed a step and almost fell, leaning on Manik and Manana.

Kyra giggled. "Heh, funny stuff. Screen, rewind ten seconds and replay."

The screen complied, sending the three people back down to the car, and then replaying their ascent of the stairs. This time, when Darshan Kant fell, Kyra barked a laugh.

She was about to let it go, but somewhere in her inebriated brain, an alarm sounded. "Screen, rewind five seconds and pause."

Kyra accessed her ReadyNet and fumbled for the right command. She found it after a moment and pressed the semi-sober button. The ReadyNet did its best to compensate for her drunkenness, countering the rotating room in her mind. On reflection, Kyra decided she might be more than tipsy. She focused on the screen. "Alright, slow motion."

The screen played the moment for a third time. Darshan stumbled, Manik and Manana caught him. Kyra spotted it at once - a tell-tale bulge in the back of Manana's suit. She had a gun. What exactly was some office executive doing with heavy artillery?

Kyra tried to call Manik.

The connection flashed after a moment:
Call Denied
.

"Come on, Manik," Kyra said, trying again.

"In here!" The shout dragged Kyra back to her surroundings.

"For fuck's sake. Can't those assholes give me three minutes?" Kyra said, scrambling to her feet.

She felt wobbly. Semi-sober could correct some things, but it couldn't do much for her balance. She spotted a door on the far side of the room and stumbled for it. Throwing herself through it, she closed it behind her. She had no idea if the mercs had seen her.

She looked around the large room she'd entered. Rows of chairs filled the room, all facing the far wall. The entire wall was a giant window, overlooking Earth. The massive, blue-green orb transfixed Kyra for a moment. She spotted an open airlock on the right side of the window. She took one step towards it before she realised she wasn't wearing her suit.

Kyra backed up to the door and listened to it.

"It was just the news, Curt, you twat."

"No, there was someone in here. Check the screen logs."

She heard the sounds of weapons being prepared on the other side of the door.

Kyra glanced around and spotted a bar on the left side of the room. A hundred metres of chairs and tables were between her and the bar. Kyra ran for it, dodging between chairs.

She heard the door open behind her before she was close to the bar. Grabbing a chair, she wheeled and glared at the two mercs.

They gaped at her in shock for a moment.

Kyra whipped the chair at the mercs. "Have a seat."

The chair arced through the air and hit one of the mercs in the face, sending him stumbling to the ground.

Kyra turned and ran for the bar. A shot zipped by on her right, bouncing off the wall ahead of her. She dodged behind a table and kept running. Another shot went by on her left.

"Just fucking shoot her!" someone shouted.

Kyra dived over the bar as the two mercs opened up. They blasted the shelves behind the bar with flak. As they fired, they adjusted their aim until the flak bounced off the wall and down towards her.

Kyra felt a piece slice her arm, searing her with heat. She looked around desperately. There were only bottles of booze and a few cabinets.

A piece of flak hit her in the thigh. If she stayed, the mercs could just keep firing until they opened her up like a sieve.

Kyra yanked a cupboard open, swept the bottles out of it and climbed inside. She crammed into the tiny space and closed the door.

Flak rattled against the door of the cabinet for another two minutes. Finally, the shots dried up.

Kyra opened the door a crack and looked out. A carpet of flak covered the floor. She rolled out onto it, crumbling it under her.

"Do you think we got her? I can hear her moving around," a voice asked.

"If we didn't, she's seriously fucked up. Come on, let's finish this."

Flak had reduced the bottles around her to shards. Kyra yanked open another cabinet and looked through it. Inside, she found a small knife, a plate of lemons and a squeezable drinks bottle. Kyra twisted the top off the bottle, cut the lemons and began grinding the juice into the bottle.

The footsteps got closer.

"You go check," one of the mercs said. "I'll cover you."

"Seriously?" the other asked.

"I called it."

There was a growl. "Fucking fine, but I'm taking all the credit for killing her."

"Partial credit."

Kyra heard boots getting close, crunching on the flakes of flak that had bounced further out. She rammed the top on the bottle and put her back to the bar.

Above her, the barrel of a gun appeared.

Kyra leapt up and sprayed the bottle of lemon juice into the wide eyes of the merc standing there. Then she turned and threw the small knife overhand at the other merc, hitting him in the throat.

He dropped his gun and put his hands up to his neck, gurgling blood. The merc she'd sprayed stumbled backwards, holding his gun and trying to see. He fired blindly in her direction, blasting the wall above her.

"Hey now, don't be bitter," Kyra said, ducking back behind the bar. She searched the floor around her and found the broken neck of a bottle. Holding it tight, she crawled to the end of the bar and ran out.

The lemon merc rubbed his eyes, trying to see her. He aimed in her direction and fired, but the shot went wide.

Kyra dropped her bottle neck and grabbed a table at the base. Heaving it up, she used it a shield, running towards the merc. Flak fire hit the wood, knocking holes through it and spraying around her.

She ran faster. The table hit something with a
whump
. Kyra dropped it and looked down to see the merc lying prone.

He glared at her with red eyes and tried to bring his gun up.

Kyra lifted the table and rammed the edge into his stomach.

The wind left his lungs in a rush and the gun wavered.

Kyra grabbed the barrel and yanked it from his hands, throwing it away. She turned and spotted the other merc, still scrabbling at the knife in his throat. She dashed to him and grabbed the knife, wrenching it sideways through his jugular.

The merc's neck sprayed blood upwards in spurting jets that rained down all around them. He fell to his knees, his hands trying to keep his lifeblood in.

"Sorry, you didn't make the cut," Kyra said, kicking him onto his back. She turned with the knife held ready.

The other merc struggled to his feet and staggered back a few steps. He dropped into a martial arts stance, squinting at her. "Ooooaahhhh!"

"I've seen Bruce Lee movies, dude. You aren't him," Kyra said, striding for the merc.

The merc backed away from her. "Heeeooooaaaahhh!"

"I can make this fast or slow," Kyra said. "Either way it's likely to be painful."

The merc scrambled away. He fell over a chair and stumbled back to his feet. His eyes flew wide in panic.

Kyra sighed and followed him, her knife still ready.

The merc found an open space in front of the window and apparently some courage. He stopped, swiped the edge of his nose with his thumb and beckoned to her.

Kyra sprinted at him, her arms wide. She saw the shock in his face as she shoulder-tackled him in the stomach. Kyra drove him into the open airlock beside the window. She slammed him into the outer airlock door and dropped him. Kyra skipped backwards, pushing the inner door closed.

The merc scrambled to his feet, throwing himself against the inner door.

Kyra slapped the cycle button, and the inner door sealed shut. The air began to hiss from the airlock.

"Hey wait. You don't have to do this," the merc said. "I just did this for the money. I just want to go back to Earth..."

The air grew too thin for him to talk. He managed to mouth the word,
Please
.

Kyra gave him a bye-bye wave as the outer airlock door opened.

The merc flew out into space, launched out with the trace atmosphere still left in the airlock.

Kyra walked around to the giant window and watched the merc struggling out in space.

His hands pulled at his throat. His legs kicked out at vacuum. It only took seconds for him to stop moving. His body drifted down towards Earth, the blue Atlantic ocean bright behind him. She watched until his corpse became a dot, and then disappeared altogether.

"Breathtaking," Kyra said.

As the adrenaline from the fight faded, she realised her legs felt wet. Looking down, Kyra saw blood running from a dozen cuts on her legs. Most of them were minor, but one of them was bleeding badly. The table she'd used as a shield hadn't covered her legs.

She pulled up her ReadyNet and scanned for the medbay. Ripping the fabric of the legs of her jumpsuit, she found the deepest wound. She wrapped her ripped jumpsuit around the cut as tightly as she could and started to walk. A dribbling trail of red followed her from the room.

RECOVERY

K
yra followed the blinking arrows to medbay. She grew less and less cautious the dizzier she felt. If she didn't hurry, she'd die of blood loss. She put her hands to her leg, and they came away slick and red. She smeared the blood on a nearby wall, trying to clean her palms. Reaching the medbay, she stumbled inside, feeling queasy.

The medbay was bright and airy. Equipment hummed under the glowing lights, ready to operate.

Kyra pulled herself onto the operating table and dragged the attached monitor to her. Turning off all the anaesthetics, she targeted her legs and set the table to work.

Two robotic arms rotated from under the table and grabbed her legs, holding them still. Another emerged from the end of the table with a scalpel in its metal fingers.

Kyra looked around for anything else to focus on. A poster on the wall warned against the dangers of sex in zero gravity. Kyra tried to concentrate on its warnings of floating globules. Even through the remaining haze of alcohol, she felt the sharp blade cut into her leg. She yelped and bit her lip.

The knife worked its way along her legs, opening up dozens of cuts and removing the last of the legs of her jumpsuit. The arm retreated and returned with a tiny pair of pliers. It zipped up her legs, tweezing out flak and throwing it across the room. The flak pinged into a metal container on a nearby counter.

Kyra tried not to watch the arm work. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the picture of her daughters. She studied their faces, as she had a thousand times before. She knew every crease of their smiles, every glint in their eyes.

The robot arm finished and withdrew again, returning this time with a tube of liquid. It applied the tube to the largest cut first, and then held the sides of the wound closed for a moment. The liquid stung, burning into Kyra's leg.

Kyra cried out and felt tears run down her cheeks. "When you're finished, I'm going to feed you to the garbage disposal," she growled through gritted teeth.

The table beeped, the monitor glowing red. It had a low level AI, but it had to treat her, no matter what she said. The two arms let go of Kyra's legs and withdrew.

Kyra got to her feet and tested her legs. The bonding liquid still burned, but her legs weren't leaking any more.

Crisis dealt with, Kyra searched the room. Her gaze lingered on the wide trail of blood leading straight to the table. Anyone crossing that would have no trouble following it all the way to the medbay.

Kyra hobbled to the door, pushing into the frame and listening to the corridor outside. She heard the kind of silence that contains a person. She waited.

A gun barrel nuzzled its way through the door. A head followed after, glancing around.

Kyra punched the merc in the nose, seized the side of his neck and threw him to the ground.

He slammed down on his back and slid to the table, his head hitting it with a bong.

Kyra jumped on his chest, grabbed his head with both hands and rammed it back into the table again. This time it rang with a louder bong. She snatched the man's gun and threw it out the door.