Kilrenko's Final Mission
...did not go well.
In the first, my target lived on a small, well-guarded inner-system ship. In the second he trusted no one and had few assignations, so coming into the area as a lover wasn't going to work either.
Praise the Stars he allowed his crew planetside leave once in a while, or I'd have had to hijack a military vessel, and those are a lot harder to pull off.
With holographic pilot's plugs "implants," I made my way on to his ship.
* * * * *
Once I was on the ship, it was a simple matter of cranking up my pheromones and flooding his room with them... only I made a grave error. He wasn't my target.
He was my bait.
There are bounties out on all Allura cyborgs, bounties that make paying for plastic surgery, false data trails and even entire ships a thing of tossing but a fraction of the income. Handlers are supposed to filter traps out from the actual assassinations. It's a good thing for my handler that the forces taking me out were so thorough about eliminating me. If I were to have gotten out of this alive, he would have died. Painfully slowly. As it is, he will "only" have to face the Home Office.
When the ship shuddered with the first ship to ship weapon, the bait didn't even know what was happening. The poor man thought it was some trick I was pulling.
The bulkhead shattered, sending the sacrifice, the very expensive reproduction furniture and the obscenely expensive me into the cold void of space.
* * * * *
Now...
Now I freeze.
My body spins uselessly. Frozen. Tangled in spheroids of crimson crystals and ruby Neuveau Hinan-silk sheets. Flecks of crystallized blood and other bodily fluids caked around my eyes, nose, mouth, ears... all my orifices.
My processors speed, then slow.
Energy is so hard to conserve.
I have no choice.
Not true.
I have thousands of choices.
All of which narrow down to one.
I will die.
* * * * *
SysCom: Shutdown
Query: Safe Mode?
SysCom: Wipe
Query: Authorization?
SysCom: W5@+-14l<8'Z_EhD;716Eu7ann21#432n@,2be78.;Zy3S_W7IK0$|TH5b5lJ3r
System: Authorization Confirmed.
System: Self Destruct Initiat--
* * * * *
Darkness, but a feeling of gravity.
Wait.
Gravity? I should be dead. floating in the chill depths of space.
I am warmer than space should be, thinking about that. My soul destroyed, my...
I take a breath. Short, as my lungs do not want to work.
SysCom: ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! Code hJ6@5s?1seF[F4hXV/gwC!I1[C6Z;efIe6~'tqAU+Z|,yp$m|=sa2o:;7h4M$KB
...
...
I cannot contact the system. My soul... I do not know if it is self-destroyed, broken or missing.
In the first, my target lived on a small, well-guarded inner-system ship. In the second he trusted no one and had few assignations, so coming into the area as a lover wasn't going to work either.
Praise the Stars he allowed his crew planetside leave once in a while, or I'd have had to hijack a military vessel, and those are a lot harder to pull off.
With holographic pilot's plugs "implants," I made my way on to his ship.
* * * * *
Once I was on the ship, it was a simple matter of cranking up my pheromones and flooding his room with them... only I made a grave error. He wasn't my target.
He was my bait.
There are bounties out on all Allura cyborgs, bounties that make paying for plastic surgery, false data trails and even entire ships a thing of tossing but a fraction of the income. Handlers are supposed to filter traps out from the actual assassinations. It's a good thing for my handler that the forces taking me out were so thorough about eliminating me. If I were to have gotten out of this alive, he would have died. Painfully slowly. As it is, he will "only" have to face the Home Office.
When the ship shuddered with the first ship to ship weapon, the bait didn't even know what was happening. The poor man thought it was some trick I was pulling.
The bulkhead shattered, sending the sacrifice, the very expensive reproduction furniture and the obscenely expensive me into the cold void of space.
* * * * *
Now...
Now I freeze.
My body spins uselessly. Frozen. Tangled in spheroids of crimson crystals and ruby Neuveau Hinan-silk sheets. Flecks of crystallized blood and other bodily fluids caked around my eyes, nose, mouth, ears... all my orifices.
My processors speed, then slow.
Energy is so hard to conserve.
I have no choice.
Not true.
I have thousands of choices.
All of which narrow down to one.
I will die.
* * * * *
SysCom: Shutdown
Query: Safe Mode?
SysCom: Wipe
Query: Authorization?
SysCom: W5@+-14l<8'Z_EhD;716Eu7ann21#432n@,2be78.;Zy3S_W7IK0$|TH5b5lJ3r
System: Authorization Confirmed.
System: Self Destruct Initiat--
* * * * *
Darkness, but a feeling of gravity.
Wait.
Gravity? I should be dead. floating in the chill depths of space.
I am warmer than space should be, thinking about that. My soul destroyed, my...
I take a breath. Short, as my lungs do not want to work.
SysCom: ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! Code hJ6@5s?1seF[F4hXV/gwC!I1[C6Z;efIe6~'tqAU+Z|,yp$m|=sa2o:;7h4M$KB
...
...
I cannot contact the system. My soul... I do not know if it is self-destroyed, broken or missing.