Back in Black (Part 2, Conclusion)

Posted on Mon Jan 28, 2019 @ 7:54am by Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

1,254 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Promenade
Timeline: MD 03 1615

The door scraped open, Hex having to physically forced it. Behind it was a maintenance bay that had clearly been damaged by the station moving when Pangea emerged. Inside were two shipping containers, an industrial replicator, and a suspension rig for welding large items, safety straps and chains hanging in a bunch in the centre of the room.

From one of the shipping containers a sickly organic smell was wafting. Hex breathed in a mouthful of smoke, then blew out a long blue stream. "Go ahead, take a peak."

Aleczandra gave Hex a wary look. Then she edged away from him and toward the shipping container.

Inside was cramped with a biobed and a trolley. The bed was empty but there was a corpse on the trolley. Hex's former female host had been dead a few days. Blood-flecked foam had leaked from her mouth and her pale skin jad taken on a decidedly green tinge. The eyes were grey and glassy and starting to sink in. It was obvious from the stains what he'd been doing to her when she died.

Aleczandra pulled a face. “Gods, you’re disgusting,” he said.

Hex leaned over her shoulder. "Still want to find out whos the better lover? I guarantee you’ll never have someone as good as me ever again."

Aleczandra reversed one of her blades and pressed it against Hex’s stomach, right over the symbiote, just in case. “You’re crazy as fuck, you know that?” she said. “Why are you showing me this?”

Hex just laughed. "I did tell you their last time is better. Don't act surprised." He turned towards the replicator on the other side of the maintenance bay. "I have a disposal problem. This place is currently listed as out of commission, but when I went to dump the corpse, I found the replicator was still attached to the system. It’s been seventy years since I took an electrical engineer and my knowledge is out of date. I can't isolate it. And it needs authorisation to disintegrate body sized amounts of organic matter."

“And you think I can help how?” Aleczandra crossed her arms, keeping her blades ready in her sleeves. She tilted her head, already hearing Rayst, her second host and an engineer, going through the procedures necessary. “Do you even have tools?” She glanced around the maintenance bay.

"I have tools. I was hoping you've got daddy dearest's clearance codes. You seem to slip the cameras well enough." Hex pointed to a small tool box next to the replicator. "Otherwise we may be using bonesaws rather than spanners."

Aleczandra frowned. “I may have them,” she demurred. She walked over to the reclamator and turned on the power. She moved her body in the way and typed in her father’s code. Aleczandra herself was pretty good with computers anyway, so getting the codes from her father’s computer in their quarters hadn’t been too difficult, and it definitely made getting around unnoticed easier.

"Good." Hex put out the cigar, grinding it against a barely healed scar on his palm. Then he hauled out the trolley with the body. " Phew. Yes, she’s getting ripe." The organic smell was sickly warm and rich. He unlocked the cuffs on the limbs. "Grab the ankles for me."

“Ew,” Aleczandra said, turning around. “Gods, that is nasty! You have, like, gloves or something?” She stared at the dead body. “I usually only touch freshly dead bodies. Ones I’ve made freshly dead.”

"You're in front of the replicator," Hex pointed out. "And when you've been around as long as I have, you're going to have to get used to a lot. You may want to think about the necessity of cleaning up your mess, going forward."

“I haven’t left any messes,” Aleczandra said, replicating some gloves and an apron to handle the rotting corpse. No sense going home smelling like death. “Haven’t had any work. I get the sense the Syndicate isn’t welcome on the station, and Gev hasn’t given me any.”

"No, it's really not. But should they come sniffing round, then Gev will probably give you work. Remind them they're to stay the hell away." He picked up the body at the head end. "One, two, three, heave!"

Aleczandra grunted as she lifted Hex. She was a fit girl and worked out regularly, more now since gaining Juheni and Kinony, but a dead body was still dead weight and difficult and awkward to move.

“I suppose I don’t really know anyone in the Syndicate anymore,” Zandra acknowledged, “so no skin off my spots. It would be good to work again rather than sitting through boring classes. What are your plans now?”

"Tie off the loose ends." Hex huffed out a breath as the body disappeared into the recycling hopper. "Pay off some old debts, wipe the trail clean. And then," he made a flicking gesture with his fingers, "Poof. He disappeared."

“He’s already disappeared,” Aleczandra commented. “What loose ends do you have? I’m honestly surprised you’re still here,” she admitted. “Thought you would have taken the body on the first transport out and done your business somewhere where they aren’t looking for you.”

Hex started throwing in assorted things on top of the body, restraints, hyposprays, and other detritus. "I've done this a lot. No one remembers a random tourist. But they remember a random tourist with a box. And when you're starting over, you don't shit on your clean slate by leaving dead bodies all over it. You may want to remember that once you start using this." Hex pulled out a small case and opened it up. Six rows of twelve hypospray ampules were inside. Psilocynine. Enough to keep Juheni on top for the rest of Aleczandra’s natural life.

Aleczandra gave a low whistle. “Where do you even get that much?” she asked. It was a heavily controlled substance on Trill, and relatively worthless outside of Trill. She wasn’t even sure what the effects of long-term use would be. She might just become as crazy as Hex was.

"It's easy enough to make if you know what you're doing. And I took a biochemist a couple of decades ago. It's one of the most useful meat suits I ever took. I learned a lot, for once, and try to stay current. Unlike my electrical engineering, which was outdated by the time Kirk was chasing sea mammals." He snapped the case shut and held it out to Juheni. "An appreciative gesture for your assistance in recent events."

“Thank you,” Aleczandra said, almost reverently taking the case. “I should probably be getting back. My father--” she broke off and shook her head. “Her father will be off duty soon and wanting a meal with her.”

"If you'd do the honours." Hex pointed to the corpse and the rest of the detritus. "And then maybe I’ll see you around in another eighty years or so."

Aleczandra reached out and pressed the button to activate the matter disposal unit, turning the body and other items into so much unrecognizable atoms and then energy to be whisked away into storage.

“Nice and tidy,” Zandra said. “Nice doing business with you.” The teen tucked the case under her arm and headed for the exit.

[OFF]

A JP Between

Hex, now in the body of Ahjess Denn
Civilian
NPC Yolanthe Ibalin

Aleczandra Ryan/Juheni Naqiis
Civilian/Former assassin
NPC Caleb Ryan

 

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