Nick had hoped to meet his contact on the same day that his mission authority was canceled but he was being a bit over cautious. He wanted to make sure he would say the password to the right person. A mistake at this point would certainly be fatal. So he wasn't too surprised when it took two days to figure out where his contact was.
Next , Nick prepared for the voyage away from the safety of "his" ship. He stuffed the insides of an orange flightsuit with laser cartridges for the Smith and Wesson. He took only the essentials for going out into hostile ground. Beside the ammunition, he brought a first aid kit, his code book, and a hunting laser. He had been tempted to put on the neon green suit and run amock killing the security teams on board the station, perhaps with the result of throwing the neat and prim station into a pleasant anarchy. But it just didn't fit with the mission profile, and for once he listened to his own concern for personal safety.
Just before Nick left the ship, he erased the memory units and set off a sterile bomb to get rid of any carbon fibers left that could link the ship to him. Then with his final preparations complete, he closed the door, smiled to the world, and started his trip to join up with Penny.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *For Penny, the two days with Nick went by in a breeze. Penny and Nick spent the time figuring out a way to get into the more protected areas of the station. When they were not talking about spying, they would reminisce about their time together at the "Academy". Things that everyone who went to Academy" knew, Nick knew. But more intimate things, things that had occurred between Nick and Penny alone, he couldn't remember at all. It was if he was another person with the same face. It made Penny wonder, but there just wasn't time to pursue the anomoly.
"Are you hungry, I'm gonna thaw some patties," Nick said as he headed for the door. Mary nodded with an odd look. Nick was a vegetarian. He opened the door and left Penny alone to reconsider. Another person, same face...
"Freeze BITCH!" Nick shouted. He held his Smith and Wesson up with the nozzel end nicely pushed up against the back of the Imposter's head. The Imposter was startled for a minute. Quickly, he spun around and kicked Nick in the stomach. The wind exploded out of Nick's lungs and he fell against the wall, his gun clattering to the decking.
Nick looked up at the imposter with an evil sneer. The Imposter's face was the exact duplicate of his own with a few exceptions like hair and scars. But if you knew to look closely, you could see the differences. For instance, their bodies were extremely different when you looked closely. Nick favored a huge mass of muscle, the Imposter had muscles but were wound on a much thinner frame. In fact, he was almost wirey.
" I never thought I'd see you alive," Nick said slowly while he caught his breath.
"Oh really. Do you think one little nuclear reaction would slow me down. Now honestly, you don't think I'm that slow, do you? Although I have to admit I never had that barberic sense to kill anything on contact like you did. But I do have one beast like quality, and Penny thinks so too," the Imposter said mocking him.
Nick exploded in anger, this time with his laser knife in hand. Nick slashed at the Imposter's throat. But the Imposter was too quick. He ducked out of the way and moved to elbow Nick. Nick was quick too and he sidesteped out of the way. In an instant, Nick grabbed The Imposter and slammed him against Penny's door.
"I should of gone back and made sure you were dead...," Nick said through gritted teeth as he stooped down to pick up his gun. Again the Imposter was too fast and tripped him. In the process, Nick split his lip, unable to break his fall. Pain radiated from his face and he knew he was bleeding. He rolled over on his back and looked up at The Imposter. The Imposter smiled back and aimed his own weapon at Nick's head. The "READY TO FIRE" flashed a dull orange light in their section of the hallway.
Penny jumped as she heard a loud "BANG" on the wall. She rushed over to the nightstand and retrieved her small Laser SHOT. She dashed for the door and swung it open, rolling out into hallway opposite her door. She dropped to one knee and pointed her weapon in the direction she thought she had heard the noise. Her mouth dropped open.
She couldn't believe it. There were two Nicks. The first one was skinny and wore a thin blue gamma ray suit. But his face looked exactly like that of the second Nick. That one had a big build and wore a dull orange flightsuit like they did in the Resistance Air Force.
Nick 1 had his gun pointed at Nick 2, who was on the ground with his hands behind his head. They were talking about something to do with an explosion, but the words were too muffled for Penny to hear. They were so deep into their conversation they didn't even notice Penny despite her rather noisy entrance. She was about to interrupt them when a voice behind them shouted
"FREEZE. THIS IS A CLASS TWO AREA. PUT THE GUNS DOWN AND YOUR HANDS UP!"
Nick, with some effort, slowly unfolded from the floor, while the Imposter reholstered his laser and put his hands up. Nick followed suit. His lip was bleeding pretty badly now and his hand was slick from wiping at the damage. Both Nicks now saw Penny as she placed her own weapon on the floor. In a moment her hands nervously held high too.
Three white armor suits made their way slowly and nervously to the group. They sported Heavy Assault Rifles and and the "READY TO FIRE" teltales were in clearly lit.
"Unholster your weapon with two fingers and drop it in front of you!" the leader ordered the Imposter.
The Imposter smiled at him and said "You'll have to come and take it from me". Nick understood what he was doing, he had done the same thing before.
As the leader closed on the Imposter, the other Nick sneered to goad him. As the man stuck the the end of his rifle in The Imposter's chest, he said, "Okay smart-ass, give it to me."
The other Nick nodded, "Glad to." In a quick and fluid motion, his laser knife appeared out of no where in his hand and added an opening to the man's throat.
"RUN FOR IT!" The Imposter shouted. Nick reached down and scooped up his Smith and Wesson. He wasn't going to run. Quickly, he slipped in a new clip and fired into the hallway, clipping the side of the second man in white. Screaming a victory cry, he made a break down the hall. The Imposter followed him as Nick glanced back to see if Penny was running too. She ducked back towards her room.
The last armored guard exploded action. He emptied round after round down the hall desperately trying to stop the intruder's escape, hoping to get them before they reached safety. At the same he managed to pop open his communicator, "Tango Three. I have three perps and I need some help, NOW!"
It wasn't till the two Nicks had reached the end of the hallway, that they met the rest of Station III's armed guard. The air sizzled with criss-crossing laser beams. Penny fired from her hallway when she could but there were just too many of them. At least 20 or 30. All in firing groups, row after row. Nick was shouting now, something Penny couldn't quite make out,
"Nuts...we're trapped like...Hamsters", she finally pulled out of the sounds of screaming laser beams and their impacts on the corridor walls.
She agreed, it was pretty hopeless now. As she expected Nick 2 went down first, with Nick 1 joining him soon after. There weren't any physical wounds that she could see, so both of the agents probably had been stunned.
Penny managed to get back inside her quarters and lock the door. Fortunately, it would take considerable time for the guards to figure out where she was, the angle of the corridor made her position during the firefight impossible to judge.
Inside her room, she stopped to consider her situation. Most of all she was bothered about the odd yell the second Nick had made as he went down.
"Nuts, we're trapped like Hamsters". The code book yielded up "Double Agent" for nuts. That was logical, as she could clearly see something strange going on with the two Nicks. The other words seemed to be just fillers. Hamster seemed likely though. Sure enough, she found it. But despite what she had already seen, it still was startling.
Twin Brother.