Nick awoke in the pilot's chair of his new ship. The day before came flooding back to him. He got up and stretched. The huge, neon, battle armor lay in a clump in the room behind him. He fumbled in the dark cockpit for the lightswitch. He switched on the light and a timid beeping interrupted the quiet of space. He looked at his wrist and an annoyed look managed to make it's way over his tired and sleepy face. He sat back down in the pilot's chair.
The ship wasn't his. When they'd found the janitor's body someone had figured that one of the ships clustered around the station belonged to the attacker. He'd foreseen this, so he had abandoned his former ship, booby trapping the door as he left. Then he used his suit computer to tap into the ship registry and found a name that bothered him. He killed the owner, a pudgy old man in his late 60s and threw his body out into space.
From the ship which he'd named "Rebels End" he'd been able to tap into the station's main computer. From there he had access to everything. Especially the cameras. Through the cameras he saw the idiot Station III security blunder into his booby trap on his old ship releasing poisonous gas which then threatened to flood the whole station.
After all the bad air had been pumped out into space, the station had gone back to normal activity. Well, the civilians had gone back to regular activity. The security team had been having meetings every hour now pressed with the challenge of overcoming "certain terrorist activity."
Nick shut off the beeping. The beeping meant he was to contact Resistance Command. They probably had an update for him. He dressed in the neon battle armor to his waist and sat at the communications unit of his new ship. He went through the proper channels and finally got a communications links built through to his command.
The group of people were known as "The Rebels". They had founded The Resistance when Station 1 had been destroyed. It was from this room that "The Rebels" sent out spies to all places of concern.
"You should have never killed that janitor," one of them said.
" Yes Nick. You must learn to control your anger," another said.
"Sorry sirs, but he looked like he was going to sound the alarm," Nick said in his defense. "I wanted to use the correct procedure but everything happened too fast.
" We've heard that story before Nick. That is why the command has decided to take you partly off the mission.,". The news hit Nick very hard. He sank deeper in the chair and he started to protest. But before the words were out of his mouth, one of the leaders continued, "One of the other agents already on the station will assume full on-site command. In your suit you will find the necessary equipment to contact the lead agent,". Nick looked in the pocket of the armor pants and found the coded plastic wafer.
"You'll have to go without the suit. The Station security might be looking for it now. You may take your Advantage Laser, but that's it. We've given you enough chances. We want this mission done now and done right, so that we can move onto phase 2. That is all. We will recontact you in 3 days," the screen went blank.
Nick got up and took off the metallic pants and proceeded to put on his new costume. It was gonna be a bad day. He wasn't gona get to kill anyone.
Penny Swager finished the report she had been writing on the affects of Jelly Beans on rats in space. The sector she was in was still missing anti-gravity so she had to float around the quaint "hotel" room, the Holiday Inn having been added to the commercial section of the station in response to sudden increase in traffic in the last 30 days. Of course, Penny's room had been illegally obtained through fake credit cards and identification. However, she was a pro and it never occurred her to waste even a second worrying about it.
Penny was wanted for Grand Theft in 3 countries and had eluded the U.S. FBI and Interpol numerous times. Why would they ever search for her here. Her new cover was a scientist for a up-and-coming company searching for the cure for cancer. Originally, when they had asked her to take the role of a scientist she had objected. But when she started on her first fake project she realized she had a love for science and knew she was getting close to the cure. The only problem was that the FBI could come barging into the room at anytime, and she'd be sent to jail.
She floated over to the window of the room and jumped for a second when she saw flashing lights. Had they found her already? She swam through space as fast as she could toward her drawer where she withdrew her gun. In the lowered gravity, the bullets were ten times as fast, however, she had to remember to brace herself properly or she would be thrown back at a high speed as well.
She swam back over to the window and studied the area. She laughed as her body went limp. It was just a space tug hauling the terrorist's ship away. She lightly tossed the gun toward her bed. It slowly spun end over end as it tumbled through space, the low gravity allowing it to choose its own course. But when the doorbell rang, she once again dove for the weapon.
She swung herself into a shooting position and screamed out to the door while tightly clenching the handle of the gun.
" Wad da ya want," she screamed.
" I have a telegram for Sarah Swinth," a muffled voice said.
" Oh yeah, well read it through the door,"
" Ok here goes. Your eyes are like pearls and are worth more then the whole solar system. To Sarah with love. Signed Harry Quin." Penny sighed and opened the door and a skinny 20 year old with big glasses floated to her.
"Ohh, Sarah's got a boyfriend," the guy said imitating a kid's whinny little voice.
" Shut up Nick," Penny said hugging her contact.
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Last Updated: July 23, 1996