Pax Galactica - A Space Opera

Chapter 15 - The Wrong Hands

Decker was lying on the ground, still unable to move, already covered in biting insects. He was wondering if the aliens were going to find him first or one of the many forest predators, when Ophelia tried to establish a mind link. It was literally one of the only things Decker could do in his paralyzed state so he immediately accepted.

<That didn't go well did it?> she signaled.

<How much of that did you see?> asked Decker.

<I heard you yelling in Galach and then I saw you getting shot. I'm also pretty sure you then went on to get beat up by a probe of some kind but I wanted to verify that last part.>

<Yeah that sums it up pretty well,> said Decker. <I took out the probe but it shot me full of electric needles that have me paralyzed.>

<That's what you get for just walking up to those aliens like that,> signaled Ophelia. <Have you never heard of game theory?>

<I'll ping you my location, can you come find me and help me get these needles out so I can move again?>

<No.>

<Really? We're doing this again?>

<I know, deja vu right?>

<You're not seriously going to leave me like this?>

<Of course I'm serious. I don't need your help this time so I'm not going to bother.>

<Well then why did you signal me in the first place?>

<To tease you. Exactly what I'm doing,> replied Ophelia.

<Ophelia, please...> Decker begged.

There was a moment of silence.

<Ugh, you're more helpless than a baby bird. QX. I'll come to your swashbuckling rescue, but only because I don't think these aliens are part of the trial. None of this sits right with me. If I had any confidence that this was all part of the game you'd be on your own.>

<Thank you.>

<To say that you owe me one now is the understatement of the epoch.>

* * *

Ten minutes later Ophelia dropped out of a tree not far from where Decker lay, landing like a cat.

<I really mean it Ophelia, thank you,> signaled Decker, as soon as he saw her. He still couldn't speak.

Ophelia walked over and looked down at him.

"I'm not doing you or A.R.C. any favors helping you now," she said, arms crossed. "What's going to happen if you actually make it through the trials and become a ranger? What's going to happen the first time someone bothers to set a basic booby trap and I'm not there to save you? We're going to look really stupid ransoming you back from a bunch of backwater aliens that can't work bronze yet."

She knelt down beside him and grabbed one of the needles.

"Ouch!" she said, as it shocked her. "Thanks for the warning."

She turned pain off on her hands and grabbed the needle again, yanking it out.

"There are like a million of these things," said Ophelia. "This is going to take forever."

Ophelia engaged her implant to override instinctual calculations. This allowed her to pluck the needles with mechanical speed and precision but always gave her the weirdest sense of dread. It also required her to dedicate the totality of her attention to the task.

It took Ophelia more than forty minutes to get all the needles even with her implant. She stood, wiped some sweat from her brow, disengaged her implant, and realized too late she was being targeted with a weapon. She turned to face it.

A spray of needles at close range didn't require magnetic stabilization. Needles tore into her head in such numbers that Ophelia's face disappeared beneath them. Several traveled through her eyes and into her brain. She slumped down over Decker's prone form, dead.

Decker was free of needles but he still didn't have full movement in his limbs yet, certainly not enough to stand up.

One of the aliens, flanked by another probe, cautiously approached them. Decker struggled to get up but he could only coax the smallest movements from his extremities. His arms and legs shook with effort but did little else.

The probe floated around Ophelia's body in a circle and then roughly pulled her up into the air with a noisy tractor beam. The alien came up very close to inspect her. Decker could see several sensor sweeps being performed by the alien's helmet. It seemed to have found something of interest. Using one of it's tiny mechanical baby hands the alien grabbed the purple jester's cap shaped deathward Ophelia wore right off her chest.

Sprell sprell sprell. Decker didn't even want to contemplate the things a nefarious actor could do with a deathward with an active mind state in it. What they could do to the infinite number of virtual instances of that person that they could create. It was a fate worse than death. It was a potentially infinite number of simultaneous fates worse than death. It was the worst thing Decker could imagine happening to someone and Decker had a dark imagination.

Decker was starting to get some movement back in his arms. He wasn't ready yet though. He would have to make this count.

The alien put the deathward away in a small bag it wore strapped to its torso. It continued to inspect Ophelia. Decker trembled when he saw one of its little arms get dangerously close to her holstered pistol. It didn't seem to recognize the significance of the weapon, instead finding her knife and storing it away in the bag as well.

As slowly and carefully as he could, in hopes no one would see, Decker made a fist. He made sure he could open and close it completely. He could. He wiggled his toes. They moved. It would have to do.

Decker rolled himself to a sitting position and, in a single unbroken movement, grabbed Ophelia's railpistol from its hostler as she floated in the air in front of him. The probe was closest so he shot it first. Even a low-powered railgun was enough to tear through the probe's armor like it was nothing. Particles of vital components were blown out the back of the probe and it fell backwards from the sky like a lightly tossed brick.

Still kneeling Decker brought the pistol to bear on the startled alien. He aimed right for the helmet, squeezed the trigger, and- click click click. It was out of ammo.

The alien fled. Decker struggled to his feet and tried to follow but after only a few slow, staggered steps the futility of giving chase became obvious. He knew where it was headed at any rate.

He would have to go to the alien ship and get back Ophelia's deathward. That was all there was to it. No matter what he had to make sure they didn't leave the orbital with it. There would be no containing it after that.

If Decker had to destroy Ophelia's deathward to keep it out of the hands of the aliens he was going to have to do it. If he had to destroy both his and hers just to keep hers out of alien hands it would still be worth it.

Decker was all in. If this was the last thing he did he was going to do it. Hopefully, though, he would be able to retrieve her deathward without anyone having to die permanently. It wouldn't do to count himself dead just yet. He had to play this smart. He had to get it done.

Kel and Zaire. Their main camp was nearby. They had guns. With their help an assault on the aliens would be far less suicidal. While Decker hated to leave the aliens alone with Ophelia's deathward he knew he was only going to get one chance at this. He had to make sure he pressed every advantage.

Decker made his way deeper into the forest, heading as the crow flies straight for the camp.