Mihoshi Kurimitsu, detective for the Galaxy Police, carefully took each step at a time, slowly pressing her feet at the point where each tread met the riser. Balanced, silent, she held the gun in both hands, sick at the thought of using it. Tears were rolling freely down her cheeks.
She reached the lower level of the house, a recreation room that opened on a patio. She stood by the stairs, open to the space about her. She knew. Somehow, she knew.
"Deshwa!" she called out. "I'm here!"
Nothing happened for long moments. Then, from an angle behind the bar, a panel slowly opened. Nothing again. The he stepped out.
He was tall, with an athelete's build. Dark hair, darker eyes. All he had on was flannel sleep pants, but he had a feline walk as if he were willing to part with those at any second. His face held what could have been a smile, a cold turning of the corners of his mouth. He stepped from behind the bar.
Not the same Deshwa. But then, how could it be?
He said, "Mihoshi. Darling. And I came all this way, only to have you find me."
She aimed the gun at his chest.
"Is that nessesary?" His voice was different, but still the smooth flowing baritone.
"You're dead!" she said.
"I'm sure you thought so! Your little alien friends thought so."
Mihoshi blinked away the tears. "They burned you! I saw you go!"
"And I saw you go, when Search and Rescue found you at the crash sight! Of course, they couldn't take me! I didn't look like Commander Deshwa anymore! But a survey team followed up to remove our ship! I was back in the service before I knew it!"
"You lousy bunch of bugs! I can't believe you could have ever been Deshwa!"
"But I am, my love! I'm the same Deshwa! Just another body, that's all!"
"NO! You're bugs! Microbes that ate some poor kid named Deshwa and stole his life!"
"I am Deshwa, Mihoshi! The Academy instructor who you fell in love with! The instructor who fell in love with you! Your first parner, the man who got you into deep space ahead of Kiyone Makibi and all the rest!"
"You're no man! You're just a colony of bugs that infests a body's brain. When you're in danger, you infect someone else and eat their soul!"
"I do not eat souls. As far as I know, bipeds don't even have souls! Maybe they're soulless until I come along and give them true life!"
"After we crashed, you tried to eat me! And when that didn't work, you ate one of the little aliens instead!"
"I had a right to survive!" Deshwa was visibly angry now.
Mihoshi did not care. "All we are is food to you!"
"This is tiresome!"
"All I am is food to you!"
"Then why did I come all this way just to find you? Why did I cross so much space to come to another bleak planet?"
"I don't know! You're sickness! I don't understand sickness!"
"Look, Mihoshi, the offer I made back on the that barren rock still stands. I want you. I need you. You can be at my side, forever ..."
"Go to Hell!"
Deshwa squeezed at his thighs with angry hands. "You were always like that. So damn stubborn. I always hated having to take you and set you straight. And look what's happened since. Lost, fluttering ..."
"Yeah! They all call me bubblehead, as if I can't hear them."
The thing sneered. "That's because you don't have that someone to give you those slaps of reality, give you that focus. And without it, you'll always be less than you could be."
Mihoshi dropped an arm, holding the gun in a single hand. "I don't think I'm the way I am because you don't hit me anymore. Maybe it was the crash that scattered my head. Maybe it was the poison junk I ate from the dirt ! Maybe it was the water! Maybe it was finding out that the one man I loved was a diseased dead thing looking to eat me! Or maybe it's cause when I think straight, sooner or later, I think of you!"
"Mihoshi!"
"I should have reported you the first time you touched me!"
"You'd never do that! We love ..."
"Shut up!"
"This fighting is useless!"
"I said, Shut up!"
"No, listen to me! A few of my undiferentiated cells. That's all it takes. Once inside, they'll start to copy ..."
"I don't want to be a copy! I'm me, damn it! Why was that never enough?"
The Deshwa thing held up a hand. "All right! All right! Bad choice of words, that's all! The cells will transfer your essence over into themselves. Very soon you'll be in that body but not of that body, Mihoshi! You'll be free!"
"Like you!" And that enraged her.
"Yes! Free! Free to leave when that frame becomes old or damaged, free to begin anew, fresh! Young! We'll live forever! Side by side!"
"I don't want to become like you!"
"You won't think that afterwards, I promise! Once you taste immortality, you'll never give it up!"
"I'm not immortal, Deshwa. Neither are you."
The Deshwa thing flexed a fist. "Why do you always need a good shake to clear your head?"
The gun armed with a shriek. Mihoshi's arm remained steady as any statue. " And that ... will never happen again!"
He drew back, his eyes intent upon her. "So, what now? You may as well stun me, though no doctor on this world will ever find the truth."
She flexed her hand on the gun. "Yeah, well, I kinda thought I might meet another bug colony some day, so I had Armory make me this special gun. You remember Armory? He never did much liked you." The thing directs its gaze at the weapon in her hand. "It will probably burn off my whole arm. Boil my eyes! But if it burns you out of my head, Oh, God!"
"No, Mihoshi!
"At this range, not a cell! Not a single cell!"
"Mihoshi! You can't! You're GP! You can't just shoot!"
"This time I can!"
"It's murder!"
"No!" Mihoshi screamed. "You can only murder people! But you're not people! You're bugs! Infection! Disease! And I'm tired of being sick of you!"
The Deshwa thing understood her intentions now. He broke to one side and rushed to the hidden panel, using the bar as his shield. Mihoshi walked behind him, eyes dry now, ready to do what had to be done. When she had a clear shot, she raised the weapon, aiming it at the body holding the Deshwa colony. The thing growled as it pulled at the panel.
"Oh, please!" she said with disgust, and fired.
The energy within the weapon jumped across instantly. Solids and liquids vaporised, and gases sheared to plasma. It wasn't so much light and heat as it was sound and wind, a great booming rush. A hurricane's hand threw her down and away, but her luck was good: Most of the force passed through the two meter hole formed where the wall met the ceiling. Somewhere in that violent moment, the Deshwa thing ceased. Except in memory.
Mihoshi Kurimitsu coughed and hacked and retched, as much from the thoughts in her mind as the fumes within her lungs. Somewhere far away, a familiar voice called her name, and she stared about her, trying to make sense of it. It came from her center, and as she unwrapped her arms from her waist, she realized her comm had jarred on in her fall.
"Mihoshi! Answer us, please? We have you tracked now! Mihoshi!"
Lifting her wrist, all she could say is, "Yeah?"
"Mihoshi! Mihoshi! Are you okay?"
She thought a moment, then told the usual Deshwa lie. "Hey, I'm okay. Don't worry!"
"Okay, stay where you're at if it's safe! We're nearly there!"
She dropped her arm, and just laid there, her eyes unfocused. She sucked in sharp gasps of air through her mouth, the closest thing she had left to sobs.
She reached the lower level of the house, a recreation room that opened on a patio. She stood by the stairs, open to the space about her. She knew. Somehow, she knew.
"Deshwa!" she called out. "I'm here!"
Nothing happened for long moments. Then, from an angle behind the bar, a panel slowly opened. Nothing again. The he stepped out.
He was tall, with an athelete's build. Dark hair, darker eyes. All he had on was flannel sleep pants, but he had a feline walk as if he were willing to part with those at any second. His face held what could have been a smile, a cold turning of the corners of his mouth. He stepped from behind the bar.
Not the same Deshwa. But then, how could it be?
He said, "Mihoshi. Darling. And I came all this way, only to have you find me."
She aimed the gun at his chest.
"Is that nessesary?" His voice was different, but still the smooth flowing baritone.
"You're dead!" she said.
"I'm sure you thought so! Your little alien friends thought so."
Mihoshi blinked away the tears. "They burned you! I saw you go!"
"And I saw you go, when Search and Rescue found you at the crash sight! Of course, they couldn't take me! I didn't look like Commander Deshwa anymore! But a survey team followed up to remove our ship! I was back in the service before I knew it!"
"You lousy bunch of bugs! I can't believe you could have ever been Deshwa!"
"But I am, my love! I'm the same Deshwa! Just another body, that's all!"
"NO! You're bugs! Microbes that ate some poor kid named Deshwa and stole his life!"
"I am Deshwa, Mihoshi! The Academy instructor who you fell in love with! The instructor who fell in love with you! Your first parner, the man who got you into deep space ahead of Kiyone Makibi and all the rest!"
"You're no man! You're just a colony of bugs that infests a body's brain. When you're in danger, you infect someone else and eat their soul!"
"I do not eat souls. As far as I know, bipeds don't even have souls! Maybe they're soulless until I come along and give them true life!"
"After we crashed, you tried to eat me! And when that didn't work, you ate one of the little aliens instead!"
"I had a right to survive!" Deshwa was visibly angry now.
Mihoshi did not care. "All we are is food to you!"
"This is tiresome!"
"All I am is food to you!"
"Then why did I come all this way just to find you? Why did I cross so much space to come to another bleak planet?"
"I don't know! You're sickness! I don't understand sickness!"
"Look, Mihoshi, the offer I made back on the that barren rock still stands. I want you. I need you. You can be at my side, forever ..."
"Go to Hell!"
Deshwa squeezed at his thighs with angry hands. "You were always like that. So damn stubborn. I always hated having to take you and set you straight. And look what's happened since. Lost, fluttering ..."
"Yeah! They all call me bubblehead, as if I can't hear them."
The thing sneered. "That's because you don't have that someone to give you those slaps of reality, give you that focus. And without it, you'll always be less than you could be."
Mihoshi dropped an arm, holding the gun in a single hand. "I don't think I'm the way I am because you don't hit me anymore. Maybe it was the crash that scattered my head. Maybe it was the poison junk I ate from the dirt ! Maybe it was the water! Maybe it was finding out that the one man I loved was a diseased dead thing looking to eat me! Or maybe it's cause when I think straight, sooner or later, I think of you!"
"Mihoshi!"
"I should have reported you the first time you touched me!"
"You'd never do that! We love ..."
"Shut up!"
"This fighting is useless!"
"I said, Shut up!"
"No, listen to me! A few of my undiferentiated cells. That's all it takes. Once inside, they'll start to copy ..."
"I don't want to be a copy! I'm me, damn it! Why was that never enough?"
The Deshwa thing held up a hand. "All right! All right! Bad choice of words, that's all! The cells will transfer your essence over into themselves. Very soon you'll be in that body but not of that body, Mihoshi! You'll be free!"
"Like you!" And that enraged her.
"Yes! Free! Free to leave when that frame becomes old or damaged, free to begin anew, fresh! Young! We'll live forever! Side by side!"
"I don't want to become like you!"
"You won't think that afterwards, I promise! Once you taste immortality, you'll never give it up!"
"I'm not immortal, Deshwa. Neither are you."
The Deshwa thing flexed a fist. "Why do you always need a good shake to clear your head?"
The gun armed with a shriek. Mihoshi's arm remained steady as any statue. " And that ... will never happen again!"
He drew back, his eyes intent upon her. "So, what now? You may as well stun me, though no doctor on this world will ever find the truth."
She flexed her hand on the gun. "Yeah, well, I kinda thought I might meet another bug colony some day, so I had Armory make me this special gun. You remember Armory? He never did much liked you." The thing directs its gaze at the weapon in her hand. "It will probably burn off my whole arm. Boil my eyes! But if it burns you out of my head, Oh, God!"
"No, Mihoshi!
"At this range, not a cell! Not a single cell!"
"Mihoshi! You can't! You're GP! You can't just shoot!"
"This time I can!"
"It's murder!"
"No!" Mihoshi screamed. "You can only murder people! But you're not people! You're bugs! Infection! Disease! And I'm tired of being sick of you!"
The Deshwa thing understood her intentions now. He broke to one side and rushed to the hidden panel, using the bar as his shield. Mihoshi walked behind him, eyes dry now, ready to do what had to be done. When she had a clear shot, she raised the weapon, aiming it at the body holding the Deshwa colony. The thing growled as it pulled at the panel.
"Oh, please!" she said with disgust, and fired.
The energy within the weapon jumped across instantly. Solids and liquids vaporised, and gases sheared to plasma. It wasn't so much light and heat as it was sound and wind, a great booming rush. A hurricane's hand threw her down and away, but her luck was good: Most of the force passed through the two meter hole formed where the wall met the ceiling. Somewhere in that violent moment, the Deshwa thing ceased. Except in memory.
Mihoshi Kurimitsu coughed and hacked and retched, as much from the thoughts in her mind as the fumes within her lungs. Somewhere far away, a familiar voice called her name, and she stared about her, trying to make sense of it. It came from her center, and as she unwrapped her arms from her waist, she realized her comm had jarred on in her fall.
"Mihoshi! Answer us, please? We have you tracked now! Mihoshi!"
Lifting her wrist, all she could say is, "Yeah?"
"Mihoshi! Mihoshi! Are you okay?"
She thought a moment, then told the usual Deshwa lie. "Hey, I'm okay. Don't worry!"
"Okay, stay where you're at if it's safe! We're nearly there!"
She dropped her arm, and just laid there, her eyes unfocused. She sucked in sharp gasps of air through her mouth, the closest thing she had left to sobs.