“I intercepted your distress call.”
“No...whyare you here?” she asked again.
The man lowered his arms. “I was flying through this sector on my way to meet a co-worker. I had just left planet 1-8815 with my acquisition.”
“Acquisition?”
“A creature from that planet was requested for study by the EPED. I was on my way to port to finish up a chore before heading back to Earth.”
“The EPED?” Norah almost sighed in relief. The Earthian Planetary Exploration Division funded the private organization she worked for. She almost choked on her hope. “I know them,” she whispered. “Do you have your card?”
She lifted her body out of the water as he slowly reached into his vest and produced it. She found her flashlight in her pack and illuminated it from her spot in the shadows. All she was able to make out was ‘Retriever’before another shiver wracked her body and her eyesight blurred.
A monster hunter.
A Cyborg. He’s a Cyborg.She could choke on her distress.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said, his voice low. It was as if he read her mind. “Lower the gun and let me help you.”
The light in her hand landed on his face...halfhis face. Time stopped as she tried to understand what she was looking at.
A thick metal piece covered everything from the bridge of his nose to his mouth, held in place by something she couldn’t see. It was dulled, old, and well-used, hammered to fit the contours of the man’s head with precision. Norah couldn’t help but think he was muzzled.
Like a wild animal.
The man stood erect, waiting for her to finish her gawking as if he was used to people reacting this when they see him.
She lowered her flashlight, feeling guilty and wished that she was better than the masses, but she wasn’t; just an average woman stationed out in deep space. She lowered her gun.
He took a heavy step toward her and she met him halfway. It took the last of her remaining courage.
Norah placed her pistol back in her belt before wrapping her arms around herself. “I’m choosing to trust you. I don’t know you.” She looked around the destroyed hallway, her eyes landing on Robert’s floating corpse. “I don’t have any more options.” The Cyborg turned and followed her gaze.
He went and flipped the body over and she had to look away. The smell was vile and it wafted it as new, rotting flesh came out of the water.
She gagged and held her nose.I can’t believe I got used to the smell.She didn’t want to think of the bugs that skittered about, or the ones that had been displaced. Wet socks and rain were the least of her problems. Her eyes fell back on the weaponized man.
She began to count the ones that she could see strapped to his body.
“You’re safe with me, Norah Lee,” he interjected. “I won’t hurt you.”Maybe he can read my thoughts.
She watched him, checking Robert’s body for wounds. He remembered her name. “Thank you.” Norah approached his side. “Robert died of head trauma or drowning, or both. When I woke up he was dead.”
“He didn’t suffer, at least not much.”
“How can you tell?”
The man continued to look at her dead friend. “I’ve seen a lot of bodies, a lot of dead...things. His face is frozen neutral, not a hint of pain, agony, or the stretch marks and wrinkles of terror. His soul was gone before he had a chance to realize it.” He turned toward her. “Want me to bury him?”
Is he really offering me that? Right now?Her face fell. “Where?” Where could they bury him? The body didn’t belong on Axone and they needed to move fast. The thunder sounded closer. Norah lifted her head and waited for a shriek. But it remained quiet. “Let’s put him on the table, so he’s at least out of the water.”
Norah yanked down her rope from the ceiling and unraveled the tattered, musty blanket. Her would-be savior lifted the body onto its pedestal and placed a coin in Robert’s eye. She covered him up.
She pulled her shirt over her nose and said her goodbyes. She had been tearing up so much that now, when she looked down at her friend’s body, they wouldn’t come. Norah swallowed and looked away. Her eyes caught on the stranger’s knives.
The mood changed.
“My name’s Stryker. We need to move.” The wind picked up to whistle through the crack in the ceiling. Norah nodded and followed him out of the lab. He grabbed her before she could disagree and lifted her above his head. “Crawl through.”
