War Angel: part fifty-five

2142- In Orbit Around Pluto

Jack knocked on the door to Kate’s quarters. “Come in, Jack,” she said, just loud enough for him to hear. He entered and looked at her, surprised. She walked away from him, her fingers intertwined behind her head. “I’ve been expecting you,” she said.

“Huh,” he replied. “I didn’t even know I was coming here until five minutes ago.”

Kate plopped down onto her bed. “Women’s intuition,” she said with a sharp laugh. “Or logic. I know what you came to say, so say it and let’s get it in the open.”

He cleared his throat. “I’m on my way to the medlab, and I’m going to instruct Dr. Gray to wake up Ben. However,” he paused for a moment, “if you’re just going to try and finish the job the first time you see him, it would helpful to know that up front.”

She rolled her eyes as she shifted herself into the lotus position. “I have no current plans to murder Ben Drake, Captain.”

“Current?”

“Hard to plan ahead in the face of Armageddon.” Kate stopped for a moment, looking for the right words. “I know… I know we need every hand right now. And he has the right to know about his father.” Jack nodded. “So I’ll behave. For now.”

Jack nodded, seemingly appeased, and prepared to leave. But before he was fully out of the room, she added a new wrinkle he hadn’t thought about. “Have you considered, though, that he might try and kill me first?”

The War Angel’s captain stood motionless for a moment, considering her words. “I hadn’t.” He rubbed his temples, acutely aware of the pounding in his head that had begun to develop. Jack then took a couple of steps, and the door closed behind him. As he made his way to the medlab, he wondered exactly what he was going to say to Drake and how he was going to keep his own crew from killing each other.

“Good talk, Kate. Thanks,” he muttered sarcastically.

Kate paced around her quarters. It was a sparsely decorated space, even for an old heap like the Angel. The trip was only supposed to be for a couple of weeks, and she had anticipated spending most of her time in the lab, working on her samples. Back on Earth, she had few friends and loved ones, so pictures were something she had few of anyway. They were kept packed away in a small trunk in her campus housing. She did, however, enjoy reading, and had brought a tablet containing some of her favorite instructional manuals for fighting styles and weaponry usage.

The tablet sat next to her bed, which was always immaculately made when she woke up in the morning. “Order is important,” she had explained to Gina, and she meant it. “All things have a proper place.”

Looking around her quarters now, though, she couldn’t help but see the room as a tomb. “I suppose there’s no time like the present,” she whispered to the walls. Kate spun on her heel and left the room in a hurry.

Passing through the ship, she strode into her lab and began opening cabinets and pulling out chemical vials. Kate worked quickly and efficiently, mixing different substances in varying amounts, until she was finally satisfied with the results. She placed the finished substance in a rack, then opened a fresh syringe and used it to withdraw the amount she thought she needed.

She sat the syringe on the table and lifted her shirt over her head. Kate walked to a nearby mirror and stared at herself. “Stinson, what the hell are you doing?” she asked herself. “Don’t you realize this is crazy?” Her eyed darkened and her tone changed. “It would be crazy NOT to do this,” she replied. “Letting this go any further is the worst thing for me and the worst thing for this ship.” Her right hand snatched up the needle and her left hand traced a slow path across her abdomen. When she reached the point she was looking for, she gently slid the cold, steel tip into her body. As it reached the proper depth, she pushed the plunger, and the concoction made its way into her body. Done, she tossed the syringe into the waste recycler and left to return to her room.

“How do you feel,” Jack asked Ben, watching as the groggy young man struggled to gain awareness.

Ben coughed. “Like someone tried to kill me,” he replied in a low, gravelly voice.

Jack smiled. “Then you’re right where you’re supposed to be. Nice recovery, slick.”

“Thanks.” His eyes looked upward as Wilma leaned in to pull a thermometer off of his forehead. “Hey, am I gonna sound like this for the rest of my life?” Jack looked at Wilma and she shrugged. “Shit.”

Wilma gave him her best doctor smile. “Don’t you worry, Mr. Drake. You’ll heal up just fine. You just need some time.”

“So what’s going on? We getting ready to run?”

Jack’s emotions betrayed him. “No, Ben. We didn’t run. We’re not going to run. Ever.”

Ben swallowed hard. “Wait, what? You’re wearing Captain’s insignia!” Suddenly he looked paranoid and began to thrash in the bed. Wilma and Jack held him down, and he began to get more agitated and angry. “One of you tell me what’s going on!”

“Okay, man, okay! I’m getting to it!” Jack replied. “Just relax. You have a lot to catch up on.” Jack nodded at Wilma, and she moved away from the table. He then focused on Ben. “The first thing you need to know is that Morrison is dead, and I killed him…”