Beth

Beth turned the corner. That icy cunt was still hiding in the ship, thinking she was so damn clever, using her coldness to hide from the internal sensors. What a surprise this would be. Her hands tightened around the mace’s handle and cord, sweetness rushed into her mouth and her skin flowed into metal, but somehow it felt like a burden in her arms. She shoved the feeling aside and embraced the rage. Milo. Milo, why?

Tern was not with her on the hunt. This was between her and Lisa. Her mace would shatter Lisa’s skull. This was her fight and she was going to end it.

Movement in her peripheral vision and the sensors showed no readings, thus not a crewmember, but her prey. The vermin will be made dead. Bait worked well on stupid critters.

“Lisa,” Beth said. “Lisa! Come out and play. You fiery friend is dead. Carl is dead. He burnt to death. Captain Samuels shoved a laser cannon down his throat and fired. Didn’t you hear the screams of agony? They must have echoed through the hull. He cried out for you. He really did. I think he likes you. Sorry, ‘liked’ you.”

Would Lisa be too clever to bite the bait? Possibly, she had a knack of surviving.

“This is the end of the road for you. You will just have to decide how you want to go out,” Beth said.

There. The movement again. Like a cold mist.

“What is your play, Lisa?” Beth said.

“You murdered my friend,” Lisa said, from the shadows and some distance away. “I liked Carl. We agreed. Far from how you and me got along. If that boy, Tom, would see you know, I wonder what he would think?”

Beth growled, throwing the mace in the direction of Lisa’s voice. A metal crash echoed through the corridor.

“If you throw a little harder you will shatter the hull plating and vent the ship’s atmosphere. Just saying,” Lisa said. “Put your back into it, bone bag.”

Beth pulled back the mace with the cord and grabbed its handle again. To hell with this woman. Even the pitch of her voice made Beth shake with anger. There was no need to bring Tom into this, this was between her and Beth.

A flash, something impacted her face, her head cracked back. The frozen shard had shattered against her metal skin.

“Too slow, are we?” Lisa whispered from the dark.

“This is ridiculous. Come out and we’ll finish this,” Beth growled. She was tired and angry, and wanted to mourn her dead brother. This was insane. Lisa would never come out in the light, the protection of the shadows hide her well. Lisa had grown, had learned to be clever. Beth didn’t enjoy being outsmarted by that mad woman.

“If you put your weapon down and pull back your metal skin, I might be able to talk,” Lisa said. “Even come out, so you can see me.”

Bullshit. The moment her skin flowed into normal, there would be an ice shard coming her way and ready to pierce her.

“Fuck you,” Beth said.

But she needed Lisa to come forward or at least reveal herself. The mace landed with a heavy thud on the metal floor. She scanned the corridor. No movement, no mist, no cold. This was going to end now, one way or the other. She slightly bent her knees, offset her feet, readied herself. With a mental command her metal skin flowed back, exposing her normal human skin.

She heard the icy shards whine through the air before seeing them and she slid forward, down on her knees. The promise of a quick death flew inches above her face. She rolled and leapt forward, letting her metal skin flow back. She reached forward and grabbed the object in the darkness, squeezing hard into the crackling icy. The light came upon her target.

“Caught,” Beth said, her hands firmly gripping at Lisa’s arms, holding her pressed up against the bulkhead.

The smile in Lisa’s face was unsettling. “Haha, you caught me. What now, bone bag?”

Beth twisted and pulled. Lisa screamed when her arms snapped like twigs.

“I am tired of you,” Beth said, grabbing Lisa’s throat and squeezed.

Lisa struggled. “What if Tom saw you now? What if the boy knew what you were doing? Going around and killing again.”

“Don’t you say that!” Beth roared.

Beth sucked down more sweetness and snapped Lisa’s neck with a single motion with her hand. Lisa’s body went limp, the corpse landed on the floor.

Her back leaned and slid with the wall, her bum landing on the floor. She found herself crying. It was too much. Milo was dead. And one of the responsible for it was lying dead beside her. She kicked at the corpse. The woman was really dead, but it felt empty for some reason. Killing might not provide that satisfying feeling one would think.

“You alright?” Tern asked in her mind.

Tern had probably listened in to the whole chain of events, trying to observe if she was safe or not.

She wiped the tears from her face, strengthened herself and grabbed Lisa’s corpse. Another chapter in her life finished. The corpse was thrown into an empty airlock, she activated its cycle and let it run through. Lisa floated into space, dead and cold. At least some things went her way. It was time to go back.

“I am coming back now, Tern. The vermin has been terminated,” Beth said.

Milo was dead. Jonathan was dead. The lightning-in-a-bottle was no more, as Birgitta would have said.

The mad man had done it. For what? Saving their skinny asses. It seemed a giant waste. She forced herself to breathe slower. Her body hurt, her muscles wanting more power, but the deposit was severely depleted. The last few days had been taxing and not only physically, but mentally too.

Beth held the mace in one hand, it grew heavier as the sweetness retreated. It was too much. Not just the scale of everything, but the loss. How long had she known Milo? Sure, she had known Jonathan since he came into the world but only for his first two years. Milo was Jonathan, but they seemed apart anyway. Growing up changed people. So in truth she had known Milo only for a few months at most. And for most of those months she had locked herself inside her cell. Willingly. Why in hell had she done that? She had missed her one opportunity to get to know her brother again. At least she had spent a little time with him when the others were in hibernation sleep.

The mace fell to the floor, making a loud thud. From a trickle the sweetness had retreated fully. She was spent.

“You are tired,” Tern said in her mind.

Beth looked at the orb, her companion. “Yes.”

Tern was damaged, cracks went across his surface and a module protruded where it should not. She had been too busy with herself and her own problems, to observe her friend’s.

“I will heal. Eventually. It is not the first time I have lost a family member. It hurts in here.” Beth pointed at her chest, where the heart was. “Why did I get so angry with him? I yelled and punched him after his bout with Rahgon. I get too angry, too easily.”

Tern bumped into her. “You are not like most humans. You are powered and that power is derived from your hook, your enlarged emotion. Your hook is rage. Have we not talked about this before? Your rage is enlarged. It is not that strange that you would lash out.”

“But,” Beth started, but paused. “We cannot stay here. We need to leave. The situation is just too fucked up.”

Tern stopped. “Freet contacted me just after The Breach blew. Rahgon and the Celeste Clan are impressed with the battle and how we handle it. They especially liked the lightning man. We are offered a place in their clan and a whole new household to populate.”

That could be something, to follow through with Milo’s original plan. A fresh start. Away from all those things that hurt. Away from this crew. Away from Captain Samuels. That cold determination in his eyes when he had shoved his cannon down Carl’s throat. It scared her. Was this how Tom had felt when she had snapped Lisa’s hands and went for her head? This dread? Yes, she needed to get away from this.

“Yes. A new start,” Beth said. “I would like that.”

Tern floated up to her side again. “This new alliance with the Celeste Clan only concerns us and not the other remains of the Devou Clan. Chieftain Argus and other survivors have to get by elsewhere. But beware, we are heading into a clan war. Not all the clans were as impressed when the meeting planet was sliced and a dreadnought rammed into the building. Rival clans have taken this incident as incentive to go after each other. The war will be fought on multiple fronts. Against clans and Saif’s minions.”

Beth could not help herself, but to observe the similarities between the orbs behaviors and that of humans. They shared more traits than she had thought of before. Greed and the want for power. Did all sentient beings share the same failures?

“We will be better off in that direction, than staying here,” Beth said.

“Fine,” Tern said.

Beth went back to the mace, she would not leave it behind, it would serve as a memory from Birgitta. “Can you lift this, Tern? I am spent.”

A module reached out from Tern’s shell, grabbing and lifting the mace from the floor. It struggled some, but it worked.

“Nice,” Beth said. “I will pack my things and we will get moving. No need to say goodbye. The crew will know where we went.”

“You sure about that?” Tern said. “For some time ago, you called them your friends.”

Beth swallowed. Time and loss changed people. Some more than others. “Yes. I am sure.”

-

All her personal belongings went into a single duffel bag. Sad really, how one’s life could be packed into something so small. As if she was not worth more than the contents of a bag. Weird.

Tern made plans with the Celeste Clan, they would meet a distance from here. But Tern’s bubble and propulsion would be able to get them there safely and in a timely manner without any problems.

The ship was quiet, the crew held to themselves. Mourning and repairing the ship. Grinding away, as she made her silent escape.

The airlock’s inner door slid open and they stepped inside. It closed.

“I knew it. You would be going without saying goodbye,” Birgittt said, standing outside the inner door, carrying a duffel bag over her shoulder. “So, very-Beth-like. You really suck at these social interactions.”

Beth hesitated. “What do you want me to say? And why the bag?”

“Something! Anything!” Birgitta said. “After all we have gone through and this is how you treat me. Your friend, your weapons maker. I am coming with you.”

Beth disengaged the airlock’s cycle, the inner door slid open. “No, you are not.”

“Yes, I am,” Birgitta said, pushing herself into the airlock’s chamber. “If you get to escape this ship and crew, so do I.”

Someone else stepped inside the chamber, a man of a bony frame and a bag over his thin shoulders. “I get to go too.” Leopold said and looked them in the eyes. “I can’t stay here. I am afraid of the Capt’n and the only way to get away from him is to follow with you. So, you are taking me with you too.”

Beth nodded. “Alright, then. You are both adults and you take responsibility for your own decisions.”

Her little escape had turned to a mutiny, pulling with it half of the remaining crew. The inner door slid close. She activated the airlock’s cycle, the pressure dropped. “I am sorry. I just want to get away from all this.”

Someone stood outside the inner door. Captain Samuels with Diego in tow. The cold look he gave her could have sliced through her metal skin. All the rage she had ever experienced seemed a nuisance compared to the rage expressed in Sam’s face. Well, neither Leopld or Birgitta had asked permission, and why would they? The man had fallen from grace and his behavior had turned intolerable.

“Those eyes of his.” Birgitta turned away from the Captain. “Thanks for taking us along, Beth.”

Leopold nodded in agreement, too. “Yeah, thanks.”

“No worries. I get why you want to get away.” Beth held the stare with Samuels until he and Doc walked away.

Tern’s bubble came up around them, the outer door slid open and they accelerated out into space.