Intergalactic

The guard room was two doors down from the control center, slightly closer to the market. It was fairly small, with two tables, a now dark wall display and eight lockers, two of which were unused.

Three guards were in the room. Chief Elroy, Valarie and their youngest member, Bruce. The two men were polar opposites. Elroy with first hints of grey in his hair, a small belly and wide shoulders, every inch of him showing confidence and experience. Bruce on the other hand was slender, early 20s and even younger looking, and always seemed to be nervous, mostly because he couldn’t keep his fingers still for more than three seconds. At the moment, he was twirling a fidget spinner, that old Earth toy that every fifty years or so had a revival.

Elroy had been speaking to the other two for a minute or so. Now he summed up: „That means we have no communicators and no CCTV for no idea how long. And we don’t know what is going on all over Bloom. I expect the others here shortly, but let’s not wait for them. You two will be the first patrol. Try to cover as much ground as possible and report back here in about half an hour with updates on the situation.“

Valarie and Bruce nodded.

„Good“, the chief continued, „Bruce, you patrol the market and the main residential area. Most crowded, highest chance of accidents. Val, you go past the market into the industrial and storage areas. If our guys are still standing guard at the ventilation shaft, send them back here. More important things to do.“

With that, Elroy left the room and walked over to command, while Valarie and Bruce headed off in the opposite direction, their ways being the same until the market entrance.

„Want a bet on who it was, Erulas, Dephyr or Dangorod?“, the young man asked Valarie while they were walking.

„I doubt we’ll ever know for sure.“, she replied, „Doesn’t strike me as the thing anyone would just step forward and announce it was them.“

„And it’s not like it worked or anything.“, Bruce continued the thought, „I mean, we’re still here, power is back up. What for?“

Valarie shrugged. They continued onwards in silence for a short while, until their ways parted. „See you in thirty“, Bruce said as he walked off at the edge of the market, circling its perimeter first.

Valarie continued on straight through on the main way. With power restored, some of the merchants had returned to their shops and were assessing the damage and if anything was lost.

„Hey Sally“, she greeted a spice merchant she knew well, „Everything alright?“

„Mostly“, the woman replied, „A few small items are still missing, probably floated away when gravity failed. Found a few pieces from Tommie’s shop in my stuff, so they’re probably somewhere with my neighbors.“

„Good luck“, Valarie said, „If anything doesn’t turn up, let me know later, gotta run now.“

„Not worried about that.“, Sally responded, „Thieves on Bloom? Please. Nico would space them.“

Valarie waved while walking away at a brisk pace, through the market. A greeting here and there, but she didn’t stop. Eight or ten minutes by her reckoning since the gravity field had been restored. She couldn’t tell for sure, her tablet had been a victim of the EMP and she’d left it in the guard room. With some luck it could be repaired, but that would have to wait.

At the end of the market, a small group of people tried to stop her, seeing her guard jacket. It was essentially a uniform, the station had never bothered to get more than a jacket and a full on uniformed police force would’ve been out of place on a pirate outpost anyways. She brushed them off, telling them that she didn’t know more and that there will probably be an announcement soon.

She had reached the corridors behind the market, which were a mixture of offices, shops and storage spaces. She continued at a slightly slower pace, keeping her eyes open, checking in on any place with an open door. They were all either empty or the owners were inside, cleaning up or sorting out broken items.

Valarie exchanged a few words here and there, getting affirmations that aside from the zero-G damage, things were ok. In the corridors she met a few people on their way to the infirmary, most of them with minor injuries. Only one man had to be carried by his friends with what looked to be a broken arm.

What had not returned were the busy noises of the station. People were up and about, but there was little chatter and none of the small sounds of various tablets, watches and computers that usually created a thin tapestry of electronic noise.

Even the sounds of people disappeared into the far background as she went into the back parts of Binary Bloom, where little but storage could be found. The distant humming of the station’s life support had returned, a sound everyone living there was so used to that its absence had been noticed more than its presence. Many of the rooms here were never fully outfitted, a labyrinth of halls carved out of the ancient alien husk that Bloom had been built into. Most of these storages were locked, their owners busy with their workshops or stores. Valarie knew that some of these storage units were outright halls - three or four stories tall, some up to fifty meters long.

Near the beginning of this section had been one such hall open, the owner inspecting his goods. Everything had been well packaged, and the slow return of gravity had made all the boxes fall gently to the ground, with just a few scratches and dents on the outside.

Now, nearly at the end of the section, she spotted another door where light was shining through the half-open door into the corridor. It was one of those large gates with a regular-sized door set into it so that if one wasn’t moving cargo, the big door could remain closed. No sounds were coming from the inside.

A small sign near the door identified this storage unit to belong to Yezzania Senglu. Valarie pushed the door open, ready to ask as before if everything was fine. The words died on her throat, three steps into the combined storage and office that was now a mess of scattered furniture and crates.

Halfway between her and the center of the room lay the body of Yezz in a pool of blood, a good-sized chunk of her torso blown off and scattered over the floor towards Valarie, her face contorted, her right hand still holding a laser pistol small enough to be easy to hide under ordinary clothes. Her skin was already pale, her tattoos had stopped glowing, but the reflected light shining across the blood indicated it as still liquid.

Valarie gasped. Her eyes darted around the room, but found no current threats. She stepped closer to the body, careful to avoid the pool of blood. It was Yezz, no doubt about it. A faint smell of fresh blood was in the air. Valarie walked slowly around the corpse, searching for clues. Once she had reached the opposite side, she looked up and found the impact of shrapnel to the left of the door leading into the corridor.

She left the room with quick steps, and took three deep breaths as soon as she had exited. Then she sorted her thoughts. Nico had to know about this, and the scene should be guarded so nobody disturbed it. „The air shaft“, the mumbled to herself. If one or both of the guards there had remained in place, she could send them to alarm the governor. „No“, she corrected herself. She would go. She had no desire to stand guard next to a fresh corpse.