Starsnatcher - Trapped In An Alien World [COMPLETE]

Chapter 7.5

I squirmed like a maggot from the pain Iris' knife-nanobots inflicted. Similar robots ate Helix's corpse from the inside out. Its body was flaccid, its muscles had lost all tension. Dissolved tissue flowed out of their body orifices as dark fluid. Why did they have to die like this? Why did they have to die just before they decided to save me?

"Tesla," I transmitted. "Tesla, can you hear me? If you do, stay away from me! Helix is dead!"

Iris picked me up by the shoulders and pressed me against the wall. From her belt, she pulled another knife and stabbed it in my belly, inches left to her previous one.

Its cold tip wiggled in my flesh, emitting a fire that made my torso burst. I struggled to contain my screams of agony. She wanted proof of my suffering and I wasn't planning to give her the satisfaction.

I looked at her face, curious what a sadistic murdered thought of such a sight. Curiously, she neither smiled nor grinned at my misery. She looked at me with the detached curiosity I'd have expected from Ay.

"Just curious what your face looks like under pain," she said. "Nothing personal."

She pulled the knife out of my body. "Guess I haven't taught you enough yet," she said. "You don't seem to like my plan. You make your choices based on morality. You're just like Mustafa."

Iris flipped her knife in one hand and with the other, she grabbed me by the collar and dragged me through the room.

"I'm gonna spare everyone that means something to you, I swear," she said. "Kira will survive. Maybe even those aliens and whatever fellows you had on Earth. I'll only make the nobodies worship us and our super slime monster."

She put her knife away and, with her now free hand, picked up the Key. She dragged me to the corridor where we came from.

"When you're honest to yourself, you don't really care about most beings in the galaxy," she said. "You sacrificed your only way to go home because of morality and all that stuff."

We went back to the hallway room. The one with the flat stone in its midst and the doors and windows flanking its sides. Dying in a dark castle at least had a certain charm.

"Lemme show you why morality's the biggest delusion society ever came up with," Iris said.

She let go of me.

To my surprise, I could still stand. The pain was still there, but my wounds weren't as deep and bloody as I remembered them anymore. They wouldn't hinder me to avenge Helix.

I lifted my fists in a boxer's stance. When I tried to throw my first punch, I felt my knees turn into jelly again.

"I went easy with the nanobot dosage," Iris said. "Now, you have a choice. I'll jump out of those windows and run back to the dropship. Dunno how to get to the Heavyworlders and how to talk to them exactly, but I'll get there. I develop plans on the spot, y'know?"

I reached towards my Gauss gun when Iris showed me her flat palm in a "STOP" gesture.

"I'll kill you if you do something before I explain my test, so, listen, 'kay?" she said. "While I'm gonna run away, I'll leave you with something to do."

Iris pulled a knife out, but not to throw it this time. She held it away from her body with the blade pointing upwards and then opened her hand. The knife didn't fall. Instead, a thruster at the butt of its sheath held it in place.

"Your alien friend's still in that room nearby," she said. "One move and I'll react. Don't even try this transmission thingie as I can see that. See, this knife's piloted by a brain-computer interface. When I react, it'll fly to your alien pal and kill 'em. It'd be juicier if I had Kira as the victim, but that way, it's at least less clichéd. At the same moment, I'll jump out of the window and escape. So, once you're recovered, choose wisely. You can either capture me or the knife. You can either save the world or your friend."