Harvest Chapter 1
Harvest
Boarding Party
The airlock door opened with a squeal of tortured metal. Alarms blared, and then fell silent when sensors determined there was no drop in pressure.
Armour-suited figures floated along the flexible boarding tube connecting the two ships, then heavy boots clanged down against the deck as the ship’s artificial gravity field pulled the figures upright.
Security robots stood in various frozen poses along the corridor, their systems and weapons deactivated by the cyber-assault that had preceded the airlock breach.
Six suited bodies tromped past the inert bots. A human crew-member peeked around the corner at the far end of the corridor. He promptly fell dead from the three-centimetre hole drilled clean through his skull. Panicked footsteps echoed as the other crew-members fled.
Undeterred, the six armoured figures tromped deeper into the vessel. They met no other resistance. At the first intersection, four went left and two went to the right, towards the bridge.
The four continued down the left corridor, their heavy steps echoing on the curved metallic walls. At a second junction, they separated into pairs, left and right.
The leader of the leftmost pair raised a scanner and passed it along the walls as they slowed their pace.
At the fourth door on the right, the pair un-holstered their weapons and held them at the ready. The leader ignored the door’s open button, rightly assuming it was locked. Instead, he depressed a stud on the side of his weapon as he pointed at the locking mechanism on the sliding door. The disruptor beam sparkled as molecular bonds dissolved before their eyes, leaving a cloud of metallic mist and a large pool of sludge dripping onto the floor. He switched off the weapon and yanked the door open with the enhanced strength of his armoured suit.
The junior held his weapon ready, muzzle aimed through the middle of the now-open doorway.
No shots rang out to greet them; no disruptor fizzle appeared on their thick layers of protective armour. Instead, there was a faint sound. A sniffle, almost, and soft breathing.
“You found me,” said the woman, seated in a large chair facing away from the door.
“That we have,” said the leader, and twisted the barrel of his weapon before pressing another stud.
The sniffling sound faded away to nothing under the steady hiss of the beam as it swiftly punched a fifteen-centimetre hole through the metal frame of the chair, the luxuriant leather upholstery, and the flesh and bones of its seated occupant.
Her head drooped, and all was still.
“You’d better go check,” said the junior.
“Don’t tell me how to do my job. I know identification is required. You can do the honours.”
“But—”
“Now.”
“Yes, sir.” The junior sighed as he stepped forward and pulled the severed left hand away from the body, then dropped it into a clear bag. He touched a sensor to the flesh, then sealed the bag.
“Well?”
“Identity confirmed.”
“Good,” said the leader as he took the bag. “Now you get to finish the clean-up. Nothing must remain, not even a hair. No chance of a ReGen. The hand will be destroyed once formal identification has been completed on-board our ship. The thing on her finger is all that he wanted back.”
The junior coughed. “She — was holding something. There’s not much left of it.”
The leader growled. “Make sure there’s none left at all. Use your auxiliary power pack if you need to. Complete sterilisation wipe, and then the ship’s taking an early retirement trip into the nearest star.”
“I — I think it might have been a baby she was holding.”
“Just one?”
“I think so.”
“No, you saw two.”
“But I saw—”
“We found two,” said the leader, slowly and with a hard edge in his voice. “It’s taken long enough to find them, as it is. I don’t want to spend the rest of my natural life searching across a thousand planets, looking for something that might not even exist. Unless you’re volunteering?”
The junior swallowed. “Uh, no, sir.”
“What did you see?”
“Two babies. Definitely two.”
“Good,” said the leader. “Nothing left, remember. We only had to identify her, nobody else. Full wipe. And remember what you saw.”
“Two babies. Very sad, it was.”
“Of course. And nothing left.”
“Yes, sir.” The junior nodded. “What about the ship’s crew?”
“Not your job. Erasing those two — no, those three — from existence and a possible ReGen is. I’ll see to the crew myself. And if any are still alive and squawking, well, it’ll be a shame they put up such a strong resistance.”
“I didn’t see any real resistance.”
“Sure you did. Fierce fighting.”
“Yes, sir.”
The leader’s fingers flicked across the keypad on his forearm.
“Matter of fact, they took out our ship’s comm unit, too.”
“They did?”
“Yes, they did. Couldn’t get a message out. Too bad about the rest of our crew.”
“Sir?” the junior’s voice quavered.
“I’ve changed my mind. You’re with me, now. No survivors. Only you and I managed to escape this death-trap. Do you understand me?”
“Uh … yes, sir.”
“Full power, two centimetre beam, and hook up your auxiliary pack before we go.”
“But what about the—?”
“We’ll clean up this mess later. Once everyone else is dead.”
“Sir.”
“I’m glad we see eye to eye on this. Now let’s get to work.”
“Sir, yes, sir!”