Chapter Text
0 Hours Before Judgment
The Tulpar's innards rumble in a steady pace. The next space debris is days away from here, which means the pilots only have to check on the ship's condition every so often.
Time is running out. After double-checking the door lock, he opens the utility closet. The Pony Express Protection Kit hangs safely in its place. The case is locked, of course. It is designed to be accessible only with code scanner. He ignores the code bar and starts turning the number lock. A good captain has their codes memorized, the scanner is just a peripheral. 517… not this one. 617. Click.
Just putting his hand on the gun makes it tremble. Shooting lesson isn't included in Pony Express employee training, yet the big guys expect the captains to be crack shots. He doesn't know the exact model of this gun, but he knows how it fires.
He points and pulls the trigger. In the delay between trigger pull and bullet fire, countless of thoughts fly through his head.
Don't fuck this up. The last thing you want is lying on the ground with a concussion and a broken wrist. I have to finish what I started. Is the delay this long? He won't see this, right? No, no, no, please don't. I don't wanna