Without her metallic gloves to suppress the finer motions, Sale's fingers were shaky on the computer's interface. Nonetheless, her body, including her hands, remained frozen once the very experiment she was attempting to save held her at gunpoint. Slowly, she turned her head over her shoulder as she tried to reason with the raccoon.
"We don't have time for this. If we don't get moving, the-"
"Shut up! And face forward!"
"I'm not letting you kill us both!" She disobeyed his commands, turning back to look at Rocket, only to have the barrel of his gun jammed directly against her head, forcing her down against the computer's interface.
"I said don't move!" Rocket reiterated himself. Sale only responding with an animalistic growl, which soon tempered as Rocket took a step back, allowing her to fix her posture.
She faced forward once again, her eyes glazing over the computer screen. The room was scorching, yet was only growing hotter, indicated by a slowly rising temperature indicator on the digital screen, reading out 137.4 Fahrenheit.
Over her years of survival, she learned battery operated weapons, such as the one Rocket used, did all they could to prevent overheating. Once the temperature reached 150 Fahrenheit, it would naturally lock up, as firing it would detonate the battery. Her own gun was immune to such a restriction due to its heat tolerance. She took a deep breath, knowing now how to arrest this situation.
"Why… Why was there a child here?" Rocket began his interrogation, focusing his mind
"People spend their whole lives here."
137.7
"You said you pick up transmissions sent to Counter Earth. Why didn't you know she was here?"
"They didn't send any transmissions. They were probably trying to keep it secret, as they should."
138.1
"So you just kill her?!"
Rather soon, Rocket's composure began to wane.
"They were a threat."
"She was a child!"
"What would you have me do?"
"Send out a distress signal! Have someone else save her!"
"The moment the High Evolutionary finds out about this, they'll become just another experiment. I'm not condemning another person to that torment."
139.6
She spoke through gritted teeth at the reminder of her past mistakes.
"Then call someone else! You said there were other authorities, call them!"
"The moment we send out a signal from this planet is the moment we lose all anonymity. Both of us will get dragged back to that lab and killed within the hour."
140.2
"Then deliver her yourself! Take her onto your ship!"
Throughout the conversation Sale attempted to maintain her calm, though the facade slipped.
"Why?! So we can get killed in our sleep?!"
The remark felt completely unprompted. Nothing presented thus far would insinuate such a threat. Regardless, she asserted it so doubtlessly.
"This… happened before, didn't it?" His tone was lowered at the inquiry, sounding almost rhetorical.
Sale didn't respond.
141.0
"What did you do?!"
Rocket pressed the gun against her head once again.
"We… found a child. I survived by killing and stealing from outlaws. One day, after clearing out a camp, we found a child. My crew helped me move supplies when we found a child that hid during the combat. I knew they were dangerous, that taking them onto the ship was a risk, but my crew… there was no way I could've convinced them."
She bowed her head, her tone becoming reminiscent and sorrowful.
"We took them onto the ship. We thought they could've become a part of the crew. It lasted for a while, we slowly began to trust the child. We taught them what we knew… we laughed with them… we held them in our arms."
She gave a tentative pause, hesitant to relive what comes next.
"But they never forgot what we did to their real family. One night they got out of their room and got into the weapons. I heard sounds coming from the crew's quarters so I got up to investigate. By some miracle I was able to get the jump on them… but it didn't matter by that point."
The silence was maintained for a time, neither of the two experiments moving.
Rocket knew what she did was unjustifiable, but her fear, perhaps, was not. Would he kill her for fear alone? She was attempting to protect him, after all. But that did not excuse her actions. Fear is natural, yet acting upon that fear is weakness. Weakness is what gets innocent people killed.
"Remove the tracker."
Rocket broke the silence first, and Sale began to oblige.
"Then?"
Rocket didn't respond for a brief time, assessing his options.
"Then… I'll make this quick."
There was no use lying to her. She'd see through any form of deceit he could manifest.
Sale continued her work. She knew just how long it took, and that if she attempted to perform this task in an obtuse or roundabout manner, Rocket would surely see. She checked the temperature once again.
146.7
There wasn't enough time.
Sale suddenly froze, looking down in thought.
"Work."
Rocket commanded in a stern voice. She held for a few seconds, delaying her words as long as she could.
"I saved your life."
"I said work."
"I stuck my neck out so you could live."
She punctuated her words to add emphasis, buying a scarce few seconds.
"You murdered a child."
147.4
"When I first saw you, I thought I could go back to being a captain. I thought I was doing something good by saving you."
Rocket paused, uncertain what she was insinuating.
"But you're not like my crew. You escaped through dozens of armed men without a scratch on you, but the moment a pair of guards show up to drag you back to the operating table, you were worthless."
"What are you getting at?"
148.6
"The rest of your batch is worthless ash by now, but that doesn't matter, does it? They were nothing but meat shields to you. That was your plan, wasn't it? Throw your friends in the way of danger so you could run free without a hitch?"
Rocket, enraged at her comments, jabbed the gun firmly against the back of her head, bruising the skin beneath her fur and forcing her head flat against the computer's interface.
She could no longer see the screen.
"I bet they trusted you, too. I bet you spent months filling their heads with dreams of freedom so they'd take the bullets for you. I bet you would've killed them yourself if they even set foot on that ship you stole. I always wondered what made you so special in the High Evolutionary's eyes, but I get it now. He only loves himself, and when he saw himself in you, he knew you were special."
Rocket grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, driven once again by emotion. With an angered outcry, he threw her to the ground face down. He stood over her and placed his gun against her head.
There was no purpose reasoning with the captain. Her view of him was worthless. Misconstrued by her own failures and guilt. She was weak, and in her weakness she can only hurt others. Just as well her purpose in removing his tracker was extraneous. Rocket was confident he could perform the task himself. Her death was long coming and well deserved. As such, he felt no remorse in executing the woman.
The sound of a pulled trigger and the silence from a lack of expelled energy both resonated throughout the room.
Sale pushed her uninjured right arm against the floor, rolling her body over on the floor, weighting her entire form on her left arm with excruciating pain. Anger helped to numb the agony, and as she soon turned over, she withdrew her gun, aiming one handed at her aggressor, but what she accounted for in speed, she lacked in accuracy.
Rocket naturally threw himself back upon seeing the captain move, holding onto his weapon as a shot careened inches from his head. He scrambled on all fours away from the armed woman, his right arm dragging his weapon beside him as he dashed through a nearby hall toward the nearest other room: dormitories.
Sale attempted to line up her weapon, though her prone position and injured arm stunted her accuracy, sending another useless shot through the hall.
His temporary escape was no matter. The dormitory was a dead end, and he was unarmed. Sale made the mistake of trusting another person onto her ship before, resulting in the deaths of her crew. She would not allow the same mistake to cause her own death. This was her opportunity to right the wrongs of her past and prove she has grown.
She got to her feet and made her way to the dormitories to complete her atonement.
