chapter 3 : the past haunts the present

[MCAA]

Ace hammered in the co ordinates into the navigation computer. He pressed the button on the side of that console and the ship suddenly reared round and towards a gate. Ace punched a few more buttons and the comm. system came up. He began to press buttons and several mini monitors came alive.

“This is Ace to battle group commanders, do a quick sweep of the area for khaak , pirates or even xenon and head to yet to be made rendezvous point via jump drives set out by battle group deception to try and rescue the warpath and her crew.” Ace cut off before the captains even replied.

“Hey Ace , we got deception coming in , it’s the Blitz wing , they say the rendezvous will be menelaus frontier , their pursuing it currently in rolk’s fate and a boron shark has joined them and has attempted to disable one of the two tugs pulling it.” Sighed Bix

“Well get em Bix! Don’t worry, let’s divert and give chase, Ace.” Gi said jovially

“No. we have more important matters. Like the girl we picked up.”

Gi shouted something in native Boron loudly. Ace laughed and rolled his eyes. He was probably swearing. Ace turned to the others and clapped to grab their attention.

“Okay guys, the autos on to our base in Akeela’s Beacon and the turrets are on auto to so let go to the med bay and see what we can find out off this girl.”

Ace leads the way into the medical bay where on the second bed from the door laid the girl. She could barely have been 16-17. They had managed to cut away the residue and get her out. She seemed fairly stable, no signs of internal or external injury, although a close encounter with khaak would probably leave her traumatised for life. Gi hadn’t come down from his gun post, most like in a mood, Bix was sat on the other bed checking the medicomp, Danmaru was standing in the door way, aloof and silent as always, Karen was changing the specifications on the drip to add some drugs to wake her up and Ace sat on the med bay chair at the end. She was dressed in some kind of pilots outfit so she must have been able to pilot. Maybe she docked before the ship was attacked? She began to murmur then toss and turn slightly before opening one eye gradually, slowly followed by its companion. They where a slate grey in colour, her hair was a kind of sky blue undoubtedly dyed. He skin was pale, almost paper white. She looked at the crew of the sigma and then began to panic slightly and shuffle up and huddle at the top of the bed. Ace smiled and reached out his hand.

“Don’t be afraid, we won’t hurt you.”

She looked at Ace then quickly to every other person and opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. Karen took a large flask of a warm liquid out of a mini supplies box full. She opened it and slowly poured the liquid from the inside into a cup she had taken off the top. She passed it slowly to the young girl and smiled as she took it and quickly drank it. She opened her mouth again and finally spoke.

“m-my name is Eva. E-Eva kepplle.”

Ace looked to Bix and he got up and started out of the room when Eva spoke again.

“You …. You won’t find me on the Argon database.” she said quickly

“Why not?” enquired Ace

“I was deleted from it.”

The others looked to each other slightly bemused and then Ace leant forward “why where u deleted?”

“I was given a top secret mission by the Argon intelligence service I----- can’t reveal it.”

“You can to us, we are an extension of the secret service, we are more or less their lap dogs.” sighed Ace

“I ... I had to find a man in the sigma corps, give them a special package.”

“Is that why the warpath was attacked!?!?” asked Ace, slightly intimidating

“I don’t know” she whimpered

Karen glared at Ace and then knelt down beside her.

“What was the package?

“I don’t know what was in it but when the warpath came under attack I stashed it in a footlocker in my temporary quarters on deck 2.”

“Temporary?”

“The captain of the ship said he knew who the man I searched for was and he would take me too him.”

“Do you know who he is?”

“All I know is he is from an argon special program, as is I that am why I was chosen for this mission.”

“What …. Is the name of this program?” enquired Ace hesitantly

“The Saviour program.”

That name struck a raw nerve in Ace. He looked like his fleet had just been annihilated just one minute. He stepped up and turned on his heel and walked past Danmaru and into the Bridge. As he disappeared from everyone’s sight aloud thud then a rattling noise echoed around the empty ship. Karen stood up and looked to where she thought Ace would be

“Ace? Are you okay? What happened?” she called out slightly worried

(This is where it’s going to get pretty graphic)

She hurriedly stepped out of the med bay and along and through a door and onto the bridge. If this was the first time she had seen this she would have stood there silently screaming but it wasn’t a first.

“BIX! GI! GET ON THE BRIDGE!”

Bix perked up and ran out the door but before he exited he looked to Danmaru and said “keep Eva here, she doesn’t want to see what’s going down.”

Danmaru nodded and but his leg up and in the way of the door way.

Bix ran up the corridor, he knew what was happening, it wasn’t pleasant. He heard Gi slid down the ladder to the top gun emplacement behind him and hit the floor with a thud. Bix charged through the door to see Karen bent over the figure of Ace. He was lying on the floor fitting violently, flailing his arms and screaming things as the whites of his eyes where all that was seen. He suddenly stiffened up and strained out, screaming. Bix pulled a large med box from the wall and popped it open and began to set up a needle and drugs. Gi ran in and held down his flailing limbs, which had already hit Karen and number of times. Karen held his head and caressed his forehead and brushed away his wild black hair obscuring his eyes. As she did this his pupils came into view again. He opened his mouth but only gargles of words would come out

“Ka…..ka…….. Kar...”

She smiled the fit wasn’t as bad as he thought. She thought wrong. His mouth wouldn’t shut no matter how hard he tried. He knew something was coming. As she began to smile, reassuring him a gush of blood came up from his lungs. The blood came out of his mouth like a high pressure fountain and all over Karen. She fell back screaming as the blood poured over her.

Bix dived at him and jabbed the needle into his arm, hoping to have hit his vein. He immediately began to slow down and eventually stop.

“I’m no xeno biologist but humans ARE NTO SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!” shouted Gi

“His fits have gotten worse. Next one could be fatal.”

Karen still lay on the floor in shock.

“Erm …. Id hit the showers Karen.” said Bix, slightly disgusted

She stood up and just walked like a robot off the bridge. Gi picked up Ace and prepared to take him into the med bay when Bix stopped him.

“Get Danmaru to take Eva to share Karen’s quarters then put him in the med bay, stuff like that could harm the kid mentally.”

Gi nodded and dragged Ace’s limp form beside the door way and shouted to Danmaru to take Eva to Karen’s quarters. He then, after they left picked up his body again and placed him on a bed and set up several monitoring devises to keep a check on his condition.

[MCAA]

so wadda ya think ?

[Urashima Keitaro]

Pretty cool, good imagery. Just remember to check typos. It's 'NOT', not 'NTO.'

Sorry, other then that it was good. Might be a bit graphic for younger readers, but, sure as hell, it wasn't too graphic for me!!