Star Force: Starchaser (SF69) (8 page)

Mina woke to find herself in a Star Force med bay as
an armored hand shook her shoulder, snapping her out of the little nap she’d lapsed
into.

“Hey, you awake
Starchaser
?”
the commando asked, using her professional nickname.

She blinked her eyes open and saw him standing next to
her, still wearing armor but missing the helmet. “Yes.”

“We’ve found some survivors. 3 in total. The rest were
killed by the
Kripcha
.”

Mina coughed, both in relief and horror. Some had
survived, but only 3?

“
Kripcha
?”

“They’re a known fringe unit, more criminal than
mercenary. That’s who the Fahmren belonged to.”

“Why?”

“Not sure yet, but there was a fight on the bridge, we
think prior to their arrival. Everyone was dead, four to poison and a fifth
with a crushed windpipe. We’re guessing that was the rat who betrayed you, and
whoever got the distress signal off got him before they finally succumbed to
the poison.”

“Who was it?” she asked, sitting up and dragging her
numb leg across the bed with her, for it was wrapped up in some kind of healing
cradle that was locking her knee joint in place.

“ID matched to
Iryna
Chordag
. No history of bad behavior or links to the
Kripcha
, but I’d put my money on him. Without any internal
security cameras there’s no way to be sure, but we’re having an analysis team
go over the ship thoroughly to see if there’s anything else to find.”

“Are you the one that saved me…back on the hangar?”

“Yes I am.”

“Come here please,” she said, motioning him towards
her with two fingers.

He stepped closer and sat down on the bed next to her.
When he did so she reached out quickly but gently and pulled his head to her,
giving him the biggest kiss of her life before transitioning into a
stranglehold hug overtop his hard armor and feeling like she never wanted to
let go.

“Thank you,” she repeated in a whisper, with more
tears flowing.

8

September 16, 2825

Epsilon Eridani
System

Optimus

Mina laid out on the wide beach beneath a pair of
sunglasses and nothing else, soaking in the sunlight and trying to burn away
the nerves she’d had ever since the attack. With most of her team dead and her
head a mess, she’d canceled her upcoming concert schedule and disappeared from
society, heading to the tiny Australian piece of Star Force that had been
quickly transforming into the commercial elite. If you had credits you could
probably buy it here, including seclusion, which she desperately needed right
now.

The beach she was on was half full of people, but all
were guests of the resort facility she was living at indefinitely and none were
adoring fans or murdering kidnappers. She’d booked her stay under an alternate
identity and even dyed and cut her hair so she wouldn’t be recognized. As it
was no one here was interested in anyone else, for everyone had bought their
way into the resort to get away from the mass of people out there and didn’t
feel like mingling or meddling.

Every day Mina would come to the beach, strip down,
and lay out for as many hours as her skin could take without burning trying to
make some sense of what’d happened. She was so lucky that one of her team had
got that distress signal off, otherwise she would have been dead by now, or
maybe worse, and she still couldn’t shake that sense of dread. The brutality of
it all, her injuries aside, had stunned her.

They’d killed her people just so they could take
her…and for what? Ransom or some perverted pleasure? She didn’t want to think
about it but she couldn’t stop herself, making her days at one of the most
luxurious resorts in all of the ADZ feel decidedly uncomfortable, but every now
and then the sunlight would bake her into a numb drowsiness that would allow
her a few minutes of a blissful nap…only to wake up and have the mental
simulations resume.

Lots of people had offered her assistance afterwards,
but she’d have none of it. Whether they were trying to help or push their own
agendas she didn’t know, but she didn’t feel like talking to anyone or doing
anything other than wrestling with these thoughts and nerves until she could
get a handle on them.

Try as she did, she hadn’t been able to shake them for
a month now and was worrying that she might never be able to. Not having a clue
what to do, she just kept up her simple routine of coming to the beach, getting
nearly burnt, then retreating back into the indoors for more time alone and
constantly looking over her shoulder at every bend of the corridors. Mina tried
to make herself stop, but she couldn’t help it. Everywhere she went felt like a
trap was about to be sprung…save for out here in the open. Being so exposed
seemed to negate the danger in some way that she didn’t understand, which was
also why she came out here so often. Hiding in plain sight, her subconscious
told her.

Today was no different, and when her body had soaked
up all the radiation it was going to tolerate she forced herself to roll onto
her knees and stand up, grabbing her clothes and pulling on a pair of shorts
and shirt before grabbing her towel and sliding her sandy feet into a pair of
sandals. Forcing herself to look around and see that there was no one following
her, she spun a full 180 before walking up the shallow slope until she got to
the soft walkways where the sand ended.

From there she headed left and walked a while, not
wanting to go inside just yet and following the beach perimeter. Most of this
planet was ocean, with only a tiny bit of landmass on its surface and nearly
all of it having been given over to Australia centuries ago. There were Star
Force cities out in the ocean, some even visible if you looked at the horizon
really close on a clear day, but their denizens were banned from the Australian
territory and didn’t migrate or mingle here save through proper channels that
allowed the Australians to pick and choose who they let in…mainly those with
credits to pay their way.

In compensation the Australians had made sure to make
their accommodations far more luxurious than what Star Force offered, which was
a tall bar to reach, but they achieved it through keeping a low population and
giving everyone more room and resources than was standard in Mainline Star
Force colonies, enticing people to migrate here and their other territorial
possessions to boost their population and power within the ADZ.

This resort and others like it were even higher up the
ladder, specializing in luxuries that Star Force never touched. Had she wanted
to, she could have rented or purchased a set of quarters that was the size of a
starship and had an interior waterpark. Mina didn’t want any part of that
nonsense, so she’d taken one of the other options the resort provided…which for
her was a small treehouse set inside one of their forested parks far away from
everyone else.

There was a tunnel link underground to get to it, but
no ground access on site, meaning unless you climbed a tree you couldn’t get up
to where she was staying, keeping even the idle forest wanderer away from her,
though there were no paths or other treehouses within 500 meters of where she
was staying. But she didn’t want to go back there just yet and stagnate. In
fact she hated that, for her mind would spin even more and bog her down, so she
did the next best thing and kept walking, towel rolled up and pinned under her
arm, and just wandered the spacious grounds.

She walked for so long that the sun eventually started
to set, and with the rays no longer burning into her skin she worked her way to
the northern beach and spread out her towel again as the other guests were
leaving. She stripped down and laid out, forgoing the sunglasses and soaking up
the slightly cool breeze coming in as she watched the sun start to dip below
the horizon.

It felt more dangerous now, but she stayed almost as
if to invite trouble. Part of her mind wanted it to happen now if it was going
to rather than waiting for it to come later. Mina didn’t know if that was
stupid or not, but she really didn’t want to go back to her treehouse so she
made herself stay until the sunlight was gone and the stars came out.

Along with those stars were brighter dots on the ocean
marking the location of distant cities. Behind her there were more lights
breaking through the trees from the surrounding buildings and from the small
security lights on the paths. Those were little more than glowing rocks and
just enough illumination to see where you were stepping. No broad flood lights to
break up the pleasant atmosphere. It was dark and was meant to be dark, but not
so much that you’d go stumbling around not able to see where you were going.

Mina relished the change, wondering why she hadn’t
done this sooner, but her thoughts wouldn’t settle down. She kept replaying
what had happened over and over again, trying to find some mistake she’d made
that could have averted all of that…for the last thing she wanted to be was
helpless, and if she’d made a mistake that was something she could change,
putting her back in control.

But she wasn’t. She’d been caught completely off guard
and had only survived through a sheer stroke of luck. Star Force security had
saved her, but they hadn’t prevented the attack from happening. For as large
and dominant as their grip on the ADZ was, it was obvious that things could
happen under their noses that they had no idea about…bringing her back to the
fact that she was alone despite being around so many people.

But that exhilarating openness and fear had soured into
panic and paranoia. She couldn’t go on like this, but saw no way out. It felt
like she couldn’t bear five more minutes of this jumble of emotions and
conflicting thoughts in her head, but the clock would tick on and she didn’t
die or explode, she just suffered…and in a place where suffering was the last
thing that should be happening. The guests here were happy and relaxed, but no
matter how luxurious her surroundings were her threat was in her head and she
couldn’t shake that no matter where she went.

When a wave of goosebumps hit her toes and traveled
all the way up to her head she sat up, realized how cold it had gotten but she
refused to put her clothes back on…then on impulse stood up and walked down to
the water. She was scared of it, despite the fact that there were energy fields
further out keeping the unwanted debris and critters out, but the
claustrophobic and vulnerable position she’d be in in the water terrified
her...but right now she had to do something, and stupid or not she was going to
make herself freak out even more.

She walked into the edge of the gentle waves until it
got up over her ankles, then sat down in the water and scooted herself out,
arms and legs rigid with fear, and inched her way in deeper and deeper until
the waves lapped up and tickled her chin. Mina sat there shaking, and not from
the water which was warmer than the chilling air. The coiled fear inside of her
was coming to the surface along with the threat the water posed and she kept
expecting someone to push her head under and kill her right there.

It didn’t happen, but the fear didn’t diminish. She
held herself there and eventually the tears started to flow again…the first
time since the day of the attack. With them her walls came down and she felt
everything fresh again, this time letting herself internally collapse into a
wad of pathetic Human rather than fighting it all. She held her head up so she
could breathe, but her will was gone and she just suffered through a few
minutes until her arms got so tired of fighting the waves that her head dipped
under enough for her to get a mouthful of water.

With that real threat manifesting she surged a little remaining
energy and crawled up the slope until the water was only half a foot deep. She
stayed there on all fours, head down and continuing to cry as the weight of the
galaxy seemed to finally come off her shoulders and she realized just how
messed up she really was. Accepting that and the truth that she had been
denying the past month, Mina sat back on her submerged feet and looked up at
the starry sky wondering why she was here.

Not here as on this planet, but here as in being
alive. What was the point of it all? She was helpless, truly helpless. If
certain people wanted her dead she couldn’t stop them. If a moon fell down on
top of her she couldn’t stop that, or if her food was poisoned. She couldn’t
check everything she ate. Every piece of clothing she wore…though there was an
easy way to fix that. Every room she slept in, every shower she used, every
bottle of water she drank.

Mina just had to admit to herself that she was
constantly vulnerable, and there was no right way to do things to make herself
safe.

Flipping over and pushing her way back up the shore a
bit she laid back in an inch of water and let the waves wash over her as the
tears finally stopped, and with them the thoughts as well. Everyone lived and
acted like life was scripted and they knew what they were doing, but they
didn’t. It was a giant delusion they were playing and clinging to. Pretending
they were safe and that things like credits or family mattered most, but that
was just a part of the delusion and a way to avoid looking at the harsh reality
around them.

Mina didn’t know why she’d been born or what she was
supposed to do here. She’d been winging it since day 1. Star Force had never
told her why, nor pretended to know, telling her that she was alone as were all
of them and that they needed to work together to help each other, with the
maturia lessons being knowledge passed on from others that had come before for
her benefit, but her path was always hers to figure out and that she should use
what she learned as she saw fit.

Those lessons flashed back in her mind now with an
entirely new meaning. There hadn’t been the danger evident back then, confined
within a maturia and knowing nothing of the outside world, but now they rang
truer than ever. The day she left the maturia and entered society there had
been a different vibe, that of the delusions that people lived their lives by
and it had crept into her somewhat. There was an apathy to it, a denial that
bad things were or could be happening. Star Force had everything under control,
and the few situations where something did happen were minor and didn’t affect
you.

Well they had just affected her and now her eyes were
open. She felt like she didn’t deserve to be rescued, like she should have been
taken off her ship and faced whatever it was that was coming her way because
she didn’t see it coming and prepare, but now she felt the opposite. Those
commandos had saved her and given her another chance, stopping something
horrible from happening not by predicting and preventing it, but by reacting
and fighting when it did happen.

And therein lay her answer. She couldn’t stop people
or things from attacking her, and it was possible that she could end up in a
no-win scenario that she couldn’t get out of. All she could do was face what
came her way and fight it however she was able, and she wouldn’t know that
until it happened.

Mina coughed, feeling an ache in her chest that was
more emotional than physical as she seemed to hack out some of the darkness
hanging around inside her. She started coughing so bad she had to sit up and
turn over face down until she cleared her lungs of whatever it was. When she
finished her head felt clearer than clear and she realized she was still live.

Not alive, but
live
.
If everything was a game she had just nearly lost, and it had felt like she
had, but she hadn’t. She was still in the game and had been wasting time this
entire month. She’d felt like the walking dead but she wasn’t. Never had been.
Just a trick of the mind and her messed up emotions.