Chapter 2

by RandomPenName

I watched it sizzle and bubble into an indiscernable little blob and more importantly, an unreadable blob. “Do you think it ever bothers Maz that he can’t remember half of his life?”

“No,” Michael replied.

I rolled my eyes and just stared back into the oven we found in a kitchenette in the station. It was low tech but it worked fine for the job. My reflection stopped me for a second. Maz had said I’d feel sore for a couple of days, apparently my nerves will be swollen from the grafting process. I’ve had injuries before but it feels like my whole body is on fire.

“What?” Michael snapped on edge, “The guys probably making more money in a week than if he were actually helping some worthless average Joe jack ass with ten hamburgers worth of pig lard lodged up his aorta being paid by some fucking suited stiff who wouldn’t give a Flowered druggy’s heart to a dying orphan girl.”

At least Michael’s not going to make our final good bye hard by actually being pleasant company for once.

I began slowly standing up, the skin was still a bit stiff when I moved but the Maz had already told me this would be like this for the first few days. “Did you…”

“Fuck woman! Of course I remembered to get the DNA off your shit!” Michael said slamming the case on a counter and sliding it down to me. I opened the slightly oversized case, not taking my eyes off Michael, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Its just, god, you look like a completely different person. If hadn’t been watching I would been sure that you were a different fucking person. Its just you’re… well you know how these places always make uncomfortable. Like… like at any given moment it will all just start breaking up…”

“That isn’t very likely,” I mumbled and glanced inside the case. The gold necklace was on top “And completely unreasonable.”

Michael of all people would know the net worth of everything worth anything. Surely he wouldn’t be careless enough to put something as valuable as gold on top. Its just a bad idea over all when you consider both theives and check point searches. Nine out of ten of all Empire ships run on it during the critical parts of hyper space travel. It doesn’t take a lot of gold but there are a lot of ships. Not to mention the first overzealous years of the Auroria engines when all of the few planets homo sapiens had inhabited at the time had been scoured for gold. Of course they are now just finally finishing up that first supply but they finished it looking for gold on other planets. So it never ends. Technically if you had any gold at all you were either supposed to give it to the state completely free of charge, or buy it from the state with a small piece of jewelry costing up to what would equal the savings of your average millionaire.

It would have seemed like a better idea to put it on the bottom. Michael knows as well as I do that checkpoints are highly undermanned. Knowing the average checkpoint operator usually has to check at least a hundred passing ships in a day they usually aren’t as thurough, or lucky for that matter, to find the one suit case that has anything in it of particular interest. And if perhaps they did, I can hardly believe they’d have the energy to look all they way at the bottom.

“Hello!” Michael dragged out with his face bent down in front of mine, the man really was quite tall, looking in the direction of my own gaze he mumbled sounding a bit dejected “Are visions of sugarplums dancing through your head?”

“Yes,” I replied tartly. He defininately wasn’t making this hard, he was acting more of an ass than usual.

“So I guess you’ll be off…” he mumbled turning around and slowly walking to the other side of the room.

I quickly lifted the necklace in its foam tray and lifting the other two trays slid it to the bottom. Michael was acting oddly even though I would admittedly trust him more than any of my other former associations. But mainly because I knew he enjoyed the profits we wreaked together too much to backstab me. I know for a fact he is sly, clever and untrustworthy to anyone who isn’t worth his while. I can’t help but wonder if he’s feeling trustworthy of me this moment, this exact moment. If he’s feeling I am worth his while right now as he slides his hands into his jacket pockets.

“I guess so…”

Michael rubbed his eyes groggily and leaned against a door frame. “You know…” I added making a quick glance to see what had been laying in tray number two, “I was really surprised to see you had stayed to watch over me the whole time.” My sword. This what should have been on top. A first glance at the case and then opening it to see my sword would have given any officer the impression I was some kind of historical artifact afficiando. This also means that the anticharge phaser is on the bottom. That of all the things should have been in the middle so that it might not be detected by sensors. With the other two foam trays it would look completely normal on a sensory screen without it appearing odd that there wasn’t a third. Besides if it were in the middle it would be easier to access in a last resort emergency. Michael knows how I am about details like this, completely anal as he would put it. But I know how he is about details. Surre some he can overlook, but some things like this I know he wouldn’t.

“Please don’t tell me you don’t appreciate it…” He grumbled.

“Of course I do.” But it seems most odd to me that he did stay and watch. To be brutally honest the man has a gut with the strength of a new born kitten when ever he’s in a situation where he doesn’t have to tough it out. I would have thought he’d be boozing it out on that ship of his.

I wonder if he really feels I am worth his while, especially now that I’ve made it unavoidably clear that I won’t be the one to keep his money coming in. I wonder he would be able to… he’s never worked that part of our partnership, but he probably just considers it business. My best bet would probably be at the drop of a pin.

“Well lets get this all over with…” he muttered turning around, “Where the fuck were you planning on going to. You forgot to mention it on the ride over…”

“To be honest I hadn’t really thought about it,” I said carefully, we had both sized up each other for long enough, “But to be sure I can’t go there with you.’

I heard the crackling buzz of of his phaser. Ever so quick he had it up and charging before the last word had completely left my lips.

I reached for the suit case with all of my practiced speed…

The crack and boom as Michael let a shot roar streaming through the tense air around, me jumping out of the way as fast I could and the case and a huge chunk of counter exploding with a force into the wall.

I croached, shaken, but ready. I always was.

“Don’ even think about it you fucking bitch!” Michael shouted hysterically at the top of his lungs, spittle flying out of his mouth, “You’re worse than that fucking Myles Dunovan. That fuck was fucking screwed over. What’s your fucking excuse? Huh? Answer me that one you fucking whore!” He let loose three right to the side.

“You want me to answer, Michael?” I hissed under my breath.

“Why the fuck do you think I fucking asked!?” CRACK I jumped back narrowly mising that time.

“You should know I could care less about avoiding the police, the government, the agencies. I don’t need to avoid them. I’ve been avoiding them all my life and if I couldn’t avoid them now…” I hissed shuddering my whole body shaking. The fire that had covered my skin from surgery was nothing compared to the fire in my chest that felt like it was near to exploding, “The only thing I’ve never been able to avoid are people like you! All of you just using me for your own fucking purposes. And if I really don’t want to be found again, you are going to have to be the last.”

Michael let loose more shots I was barely able to run and slide out of the way and to the case. Grabbing and charging the Anticharge in one movement I let a shot out just as he shot the case out of reach again, myself tagging him square in his shoulder making him stop momentarily.

An anticharger doesn’t kill, it doesn’t even wound, if it hits a person it just gives them the tingles. At most and only if the user manages to shoot squarely into a fired shot already in mid-air it will cancel out that shot from a charge phaser.

So here we were. Staring each other down from the ends of our weapons; he with his Charge, me with my Anticharge. He standing right by the doorway me, standing on the rubble of outdated kitchen appliances.

Michael laughed, “You mean to kill me? With that? Even you couldn’t deflect any shot at this range.”

It was completely true, but I wasn’t about try.

Michael let out a fiery crackling blast. I tossed myself to the side reaching into the back of my jacket pulling out my sword put there unbeknownst to Michael in the glare of the first shot. I twisted it to dagger position and launched it into the air like a javelin and then towards Michael.

I landed with a thud in a pile of rubble and looked at Michael to see if my mark had been hit. Michael was standing tensely pinned to the wall with my sword. Grasping it with both hands he took in deep breaths, one right after the other not really exhaling at all, like a fish out of water as driplets of burgundy blood began dripping out of his gaping mouth.

I walked over and picked up the charge phaser lying at his feet. I then walked over to the furthest corner of the room carefully, steadily treading. Turning back to look at Michael one last time. Raising the Charger to my eye making sure the aim was perfect. A mercy shot should never have to be done twice. And with that I let one loose right between his eyebrows spreading butterfly fluttering pieces of his head unceremoniously over the wall behind him. I wished there had been another way, but there wasn’t.