Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

50 - Trap

Chris dropped out of the still open outer airlock doors and scampered around the corner, before sprinting flat out along the side of the Command Module. He covered the twenty-metre length of the module in record time, skidded at the end and rounded the corner to find Fletcher on his knees, slumped face-first against the pitted metal surface.

Smoke sizzled from a familiar-looking handgrip protruding from between his shoulder blades, but there was no time to assess the injury as Lucy was standing next to him, staring out at the horizon.

"Lucy! Why? I can't even imag..." he started.

"What? That this mission cannot succeed?" she interrupted, calmly turning to face him.

"That you're a Holy Earth saboteur! Your lot has got their way and stopped the colonisation program back home. No more ships are coming from Earth, so why are you trying to hurt us here?"

"I've never thought of myself as a 'saboteur'," she smiled wryly.

"Would you prefer 'murderer'?" he asked, sounding more sarcastic than he intended.

"I'd prefer, 'martyr to the cause'."

"That cause being Holy Earth?"

"God's cause. The only true cause. The heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's: but the Earth hath he given to the children of men."

"You're a long way from home for someone who doesn't believe we should ever leave Earth!"

"Only so that the flow of souls away from our only home is stemmed. My fall into oblivion will save countless others," she explained, somehow making it sound almost rational.

"That's a pretty high personal cost," he replied, sliding the fingers of his right hand into his H.E.P.O. pocket.

"Think of it as a soldier jumping on a grenade to save other soldiers. It's worth it. Anyway, if I am judged worthy, the Lord may choose to save me."

"You're prepared to die for this?"

His fingers found the Glock's grip and he slid his finger inside the trigger guard.

"There's no going back now," she shrugged. "We all knew this was a one-way trip."

Moving with methodical calmness, she took hold of the handgrip protruding from Fletcher's back and pulled it free, revealing the still active plasma cutter on the other end. The fizzing sound increased sharply for a moment, then stopped as the blue flame broke contact with his flesh. As the wound was easily ten centimetres deep and smoking from the burn damage inside, Fletcher was obviously dead.

"Put down the plasma cutter," Chris ordered, pulling out the pistol and pointing it squarely at her head.

With barely a metre between the end of the barrel and her forehead, it was unlikely he would miss.

"There's no point shooting me," Lucy laughed. "You've lost anyway. There aren't enough people left to begin a colony now, you've lost half your expertise and most of your equipment is beyond repair. Chris, you can't win! We're all going to die and the whole damned colonisation program will fail. We have no right to be here."

"Put down the cutter," Chris repeated.

"Or what?! You'll shoot me? You can't!" she laughed again.

"If I have to, you know I will," he replied.

"You can't kill me. You must die like all the others."

Chris did not realise that Kate had arrived behind him until she whispered over his shoulder, "She's gone mad! Completely mad!"