Kaufmann Mining facility, Mica II
Mica Majority State
Periphery
20 October 3059
05:24:12 localtime
Michelle walked the familiar halls of her father's mining company, letting the safety of memories wash away the horrors of her ordeal.
"Curse that Bastard! I hope he's rotting in Hell!" She screamed at the empty walls and emotionless machinery. Rounding the final corner into the automated extraction area, her personal refuge as she grew up, she stopped, shock still, mouth open.
"No such luck, I'm afraid." The clean-shaven man wearing a crisp, expensive, Draconian-style business suit said calmly. He wore the warm smile of a father who had just happened upon his wayward child in a busy spaceport.
Michelle was frozen in fear beyond speech, beyond screaming. One thought kept going over and over in her mind. Him? Here? He's dead! He can't be here!
"Oh, don't look so surprised, my dear. Katherine isn't the first House Lord to take a swing at me. And I believe repayment for her kindness is in order, don't you think?"
"Oh I know what you're thinking, our innocent, little Katherine couldn't possibly. But despite what you believe of me, I assure you it was her.""
Her? Her who? What's he saying?
"Now, if you'll give me back your going away gift, I'll be on my way."" He pointed to the necklace he had placed around her neck, forgotten until she was safely at home and kept as a reminder to be more careful in the future.
Michelle remained frozen; memories too painful to fathom kept her rooted to the floor. Unable to scream, unable to run, unable to simply pass out. Her mind recorded the conversation without processing any of it.
"You see, I had already discovered the meaning of the data, now stored in that necklace, just before I learned that the attack forces were coming. Killing Hanse and Melissa, naughty girl. And they call me an animal." He remarked as he stepped forward and, with the swift movement of a professional street thief, removed the necklace, "Thank you," he said with a wink. With that, he turned to leave.
"AREN'T YOU HERE TO KILL ME!" Michelle shrieked in indignation and rage.
Half turning and wearing that same warm smile, he remarked, "My dear, if I was here to kill you, you'd already be dead. I can see the challenge in your eyes, born of proper fear, but then I love a challenge. No, I would prefer us to meet again. Besides, thanks to this," he held up the necklace and swung it dauntingly in front of her, "I believe you and I are going to be having the same, Ahh, difficulties." With that, he disappeared through a side door that Michelle, after all the years of exploring this sanctuary, had never known existed.
Kaufmann Mining facility, Mica II
Mica Majority
Periphery
20 October 3059
17:34:22 local time
Chris waited for the lift to stop, watching the numbers descend. Jennifer stood beside him, humming contently and fidgeting in anticipation of showing him yet another section of the vast mining facility that she called home. Humming. Such a simple act. Joyful anticipation. Subtle things, signs of emotion that just 6 short months ago seemed like impossible dreams carved from the heart and soul of the young girl standing next to him.
Not that she was much younger than Chris; he was 26 and she 24. However, the reality of her treatment during captivity had been a living nightmare. Even her best friend, Michelle, who was also taken, received, while still brutal, an easier time if such a term could be applied to anyone the warlord took prisoner.
Jennifer's crime was being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The target of the kidnapping and subsequent blackmail scheme had been Michelle. Michelle's father owned a mid-sized mining company, which the warlord wished to exploit for money and resources.
Jennifer, Michelle's best friend and roommate, was just a mining supervisor's daughter, who was grabbed as the two girls made their way back to their little apartment after a night on the town. Smuggled clear across human space to the desolate and remote planet that served as his domain, the warlord saw no value in Jennifer, unlike her friend, so he promptly sold her into slavery.
Five months ago, Chris's Mercenary unit, Barrett's Privateers, had done the impossible: rescue 2 young girls who were kidnapped by a ruthless pirate warlord and dragged to the far side of the galaxy.
On a desert world caught in the open between the numerically superior forces of the warlord and an impossibly huge invasion force bent on the destruction of life on that planet, the Privateers rescued the girls and got out.
Chris and Michelle had spent the long months of travel home slowly trying to draw some sign of life out of Jennifer. In the end, just 3 short weeks before the final planet fall, she started to acknowledge the world around her. She opened up to Chris more, and they became close.
Once the official and private celebrations of the girl's returns subsided, which on a mining world took nearly 2 weeks, Jennifer seemed to find new life in showing Chris everyplace she had ever visited or treasured on her home planet. Everyplace but one particular section of Michelle's family facility. Chris suspected he knew why Jennifer chose him to open up to him instead of Michelle or her close friends and family. True, he did seem to make her feel safe, and with good reason.
At 6'1" with a muscular build, Chris was second in command of the Privateer's special forces group at the tender age of 26, a position you earned the hard way in his unit. But that wasn't the whole story. People who know real pain, the kind that can't be healed, know.
Oh, you can come to terms with what happened; you can even find the strength to carry on. But, you can never be the same. Jennifer had seen it in Chris, as he had in her. You can't ever completely conceal that kind of pain, even if you've been trained. Chris' mentor and superior officer, Ryan Praska, had summed it up after his first two weeks in special forces, "those who know, cannot explain. Those who don't cannot understand."
With a single harsh chirp of warning the lift bumped and ground to a halt. Mining worlds Chris thought to himself as the doors banged open. Jennifer nearly leaped out onto the drab grey concrete floor surrounded by all manner of mega mining equipment and piping. She smiled back at Chris and held out a hand. The smile was enough to bring a wide grin to his face and set him into motion.
The truth be told, the entire planet looked the same to him; 85% of the surface was covered by mining facilities. Even the settlements or "cities" were essentially worked into spaces left by the massive mining operation's conduits and machinery. Not that he had the heart to tell Jennifer, or any of the other good-natured, if rambunctious, inhabitants of this otherwise dreary world on the far edge of human-occupied space.
Following Jennifer's lead, they walked out along a wide "corridor," the sky concealed by half a kilometre of machinery above them. Not that you could feel cramped until you actually got down to the surface; the "ceiling" of machinery was a good 12 meters above their heads, and the "corridor" was at least 15 meters wide.
On they strolled, Jennifer becoming more and more animated in her descriptions of a childhood spent playing here and there, stories of her and Michelle playing childhood pranks on the workers who kept this massive facility operating and worrying their parents near to death through a good half of their teen years.
It is great to see her genuinely happy, Chris thought as the nagging voice in the back of his mind reared up again. When should I tell her it's time for me to go? He chuckled and shot her a grin as she finished a joke she'd learned from a miner on this very spot when she was only 12.
He'd been on planet for almost a month, and 2 days ago, he'd received word that his unit had a new contract. He needed to get moving to meet them at the new contract before it was over. He was, after all, on the opposite side of the galaxy with only civilian transport to get him home. She seems so happy tonight, he reflected, tomorrow. I'll let her have tonight, but tomorrow she needs to know.
A scream permeated the night, overshadowing the ambient noise from the massive machines all around. Jennifer seemed to go weak in the knees, all trace of happiness gone in a heartbeat. Chris grabbed Jennifer and pulled her back toward the nearest cover, a massive pipe that protruded out of the wall to the right that ran about halfway up and bent down to disappear into the floor. His semi-automatic handgun materialized in his hand before the first echos of the scream began.
Chris's eyes probed high and low for the source of the screaming; the damnable problem with all this metal is that sounds have a tendency to sound like they come from everywhere, even before the echos make directional hearing nearly impossible.
Jennifer, raised in this environment, didn't seem to have any difficulty determining where the sound was coming from. Chris glanced down at her; she had collapsed against the protection of the pipe to see that she was staring in horror toward a non-descript small passageway just off to their left. She was mouthing the word, Michelle.
In the space of two heartbeats, the sound and echos, which seemed to be coming from everywhere, but getting louder. Chris repositioned Jennifer and himself, and took aim where Jennifer was looking. He took a moment to scan the area for potential threats and escape routes.
Michelle burst from the side passage, skin pure white, covered in panicked sweat, and running blindly. Seeing no one behind her, Chris stepped out into the open to get her attention but only succeeded in catching the young lady full in his chest.
Moving at a full, survival driven, run Michelle smashed both of them to the floor where she started kicking and punching as though her life depended on it. Between kicks and punches, Chris caught a brief glimpse of Jennifer's face, ash white as though in the presence of death.
Training and instinct took over, and Chris quickly subdued Michelle; only as he started to calm the struggling young woman did he actually hear the words she had been screaming, "He's HERE!"