Chapter Text
“A scared animal often retreats to the corners of a room. A scared person often does the same.”
- Unknown Poet
Beka finished overloading the door release panel, slamming it shut behind her. The hallway came alive in front of her, six doors creaking open, sparks littering onto the metal floor. She laughed to herself, slipping in the first door. She rifled through the few crates it contained, slipping around a table and chairs to fiddle with the control panel in the corner. It refused to cooperate, her heavy boot landing against it in frustration. She moved on, another two rooms proving empty.
The fourth one looked empty too. Except, Beka wasn’t an idiot. She knew the difference between an empty room and a room that looked empty. She also knew that both predators and prey employed stealth.
Running into a stray Nietzschean was at the top of her list of concerns. After all, this was their camp, she was just taking advantage of the solar storm evacuation to loot it. She pressed her body flat against the wall, gun drawn, letting several moments pass. She listened hard, but the only sounds she could hear were her own unsteady breathing, a steady drip of water, the solar storm outside.
A Nietzschean would have attacked by now.
She crept around the corner, scanning the room once more. The storm knocked out the main generator, leaving the backup generator lighting. Thin, alternating bands of light floated through the room, not really illuminating anything. She flicked the flashlight hooked to her belt on, keeping it pointed by her feet until she could unfasten it.
The clicking of her light unclasping sounded jarringly loud, but it wasn’t that that caught her attention. Another sound came from the room, so subtle it could have been her imagination. It sounded like, someones breath hitching.
A rumble beneath her feet sped up her movements. The camp had been evacuated for a reason. She was running out of time.
She carefully shone the light through the room, rust covered floors beneath a puddle of murky water took up a corner. Either side of the door was clear as well. She took a deep breath, feeling another tremor beneath her. Now or never.
The final corner of the room lit up.
All she could see was a pair of sparsely haired legs, and thin, far too thin, arms wrapped around them. She noted the smooth forearms, free from spikes.
Another tremor shook the building, prompting the person before her to curl up even tighter.
“Hey, can you hear me?”
She lowered her weapon, holding her palm up as she moved closer.
“I’m here to help, but we’ve got to leave quickly. My ship is right outside, can you stand?”
She received no response, in fact every word she spoke seemed to make the person retreat further into their corner.
“Ok look, I came here to find something valuable I heard the Nietzscheans had, but I don’t have enough time to look for it anymore, so unless you come with me I’m going to be leaving here empty handed, never mind that I’d be letting you die. This place was evacuated for a reason, feel those tremors? That’s the solar storm. This camp was built on top of miles and miles of natural gas tunnels. If I leave you here you’ll die in a ball of flames and let me tell you, that isn’t a pretty way to go.”
That seemed to get through, the blond head in front of her lifting slowly. Wide dark blue eyes stared at her.
“Let me die.”
His voice was raspy and high, eyes unfocused and afraid.
She had a couple options. She could let him die and face the guilt of that later, stay and try to talk him into coming with her which could lead to both of their deaths, or remove him by force and apologize safely on her ship.
She didn’t have to think much.
Holstering her weapon, she took another small step forward. He tucked his head down again, giving her the perfect opportunity. She lunged forward, grabbing his elbows and hauling him up, over her shoulder before he could react. He kicked weakly, spouting something about WANTING to die in a ball of fire, but she ignored his protesting, making her way out the way she came.
The sky was full of fire, and she briefly stopped to readjust the small man over her shoulder. Ignoring the fact that he had begun to resume his escape efforts, she ran to her ship, only stopping again once she was safely in the Maru’s cockpit.
She dropped off her new friend, literally, sending him sprawling to the floor. She landed heavily in the pilots seat, thanking every deity she could think of that they made it in time. She noticed the young man scramble to his feet, clinging onto the rail beside her, but it wasn’t until she came out of slip stream that she allowed herself to relax. To take a good look at the man across from her.
His hair was short, sticking up in every direction, and blond, lighter than her own had ever been. He wore only a shirt, albeit, a very large one, covering him down to the mid thigh. Although, from his small stature, anything might have swamped his frame. He appeared shorter than her, and scary thin, adding to the diminutive appearance.
And he was staring at her. Terrified.
“Okay, look. I’m sorry I didn’t warn you but you’re alive right now and that’s gotta count for something. Can you tell me your name at least?”
He still clung to the railing, looking what could be described as nauseous.
“I,” his sharp features wrinkled slightly. “No ones asked me that in a long time.”
“Well I’m asking.” She moved past him, trusting him to follow her to the crew quarters. Rummaging though her clothes she managed to find a pair of pants that were a size too small on her, and a thick pair of socks.
Her trust wasn’t misplaced, when she turned around he was there, bracing himself against the wall.
“Here. You look cold.” He accepted the clothes, eyes darting around nervously.
She turned to leave, nodding at him on her way out. As the bulkhead door was closing she caught his words.
“My name is Seamus Zelazny Harper.”
She hoped she heard him wrong. If not, that was the worst goddamn name she'd ever heard.