Unseen Eye 15: Evil of the Willingly Blind
15 Jun 2022Lambast Mercy
Otto was right of course, Kai was not doing well steering both ships using her FDL. The docking link was made to transfer people and light cargo between ships, not mount off-centre-mass population in the form of another smaller ship. She could hardly apply enough force to correct the Anaconda a half a degree without stressing the docking mount and sounding alarms. “Otto, we’re linked. Ya gotta be able to raise Holly” complained Kai to her Covas while she banged on the hatch trying to get onto Lambasts’ ship.
Holly was Lambasts’ old Covas; Holly was old when Lambs’ mum got him, and he had become a friend of the family over the years even though he was nothing more than an adaptive program.
“Nope, nothing. Not even coms. We are only docked from our end too, looks like the Lambs ship is locked down” explained Otto.
“Well fuck” exclaimed Kai not even pretending to be defeated. “There’s noting a reasonable person could do in this situation. Good thing I’m not very reasonable. Otto, stay docked and warn me when we are five minutes away from the point of no return, I’m going for a walk”
Otto did his calculations. It was a complicated equation with many variables to factor in, but Otto started a counts down. It wasn’t a very long count down at all.
“Order received and understood” said Otto over Kais’ helmet coms as she left the air lock.
It was quite a long walk to the canopy of the Anaconda, and the looming presents of the distant black hole was an attention grabbing distraction everytime it swung into view. Kai became aware of a feeling as she crossed the rim of the huge liner. She was starting to feel her weight pulling against the magnetic grip of her boots and gloves.
The singularity was still many light-minutes away, but if she was starting to feel its influence on her body, the ships were definitely going to be getting heavy. She’d have to hurry this up, or Otto was going to have to detach just to keep the FDL in one piece.
To keep herself connected to the hull, Kai started crawling so her gloves and boots made contact with the hull. As she worked her way between some windows, she saw a stream of people in red robes hurrying along a corridor towards the front of the ship. Some of them stopped, shocked to see a slender young woman outside the ship waving as she scuttled by like an arthritic spider.
Perfect was still having the worst day of his life as a Seeker. Being part of an order that accepted him for what he was, and made him feel useful had been wonderful. At last he was with people that knew his name and didn’t take the piss because he was far from perfect. Now, Napoleon was no his way to see him. Napoleon was someone none of the Seekers wanted to spend alone time with, and a person that until now, hadn’t noticed Perfect at all.
To avoid whatever punishment Napoleon had in mind, Perfect was flipping every switch and pulling every leaver in hopes something would help him stabilize the Anaconda. Nothing worked, as he was glancing around the cockpit looking for inspiration, he saw a woman standing in front of the canopy. Perfect blinked hard and looked again. She had a sexy figure, and what he could see of her face was attractive and she was smiling at him.
Kai was smiling because now she could use her plasm charge pistols. With only one person on the bridge, Kai was confident she could breach the canopy and board the liner and get it under control quickly. With full power to her boots, Kai kept eye contact with the man in the pilots’ seat as she held the trigger on one of her charge pistols.
“About a half charge should do it” Kai said to herself.
In the shade of the liner with no star burning in the system, her charge pistols had very little chance of overheating, but she didn’t want to damage any of the consoles on the bridge, so a half charge was all she would risk. She felt the gun hum in her hand after holding the trigger for a couple of seconds and then brought it home. A red bolt of super-heated gas leapt from the projector port and splashed onto the canopy. Kai didn’t expect to get through on the first shot, but she did think there would be a decent pot-mark in the canopy, but there wasn’t even a blemish.
“Damn girl” said Kai speaking to Lamb in her minds’ eye “Whatever you tweaked this ship for must be intense. Still..” said Kai drawing her second charge pistol. “I hardly ever get to go full charge with both barrels”
___________
Maul was playing the part of jubilant Seeker very well. He was making Lambast, who was always reserved, seem positively wooden. The pair had got past some crimson robed Guardians thanks to Maul praising the blessings of the Unseen Eye now it had reviled its self.
“Can you disable the fire suppression system on this deck Mr Montresor?” asked Lamb quietly.
“Sure can Lamb. If it’s a safety system, I can do what I want with it. But whoever is on the other end can undo my work. It’s gonna be like a slap fight until we can get them away from the keyboard” said Maul looking forward to getting to work.
“When we get to the room, I’ll need you to do that please. I’ll use the same tactic I used to get the account information from that accountant you rumbled”
“Oh yeah, I meant to ask you about her” said Maul “I wondered how you got all the bank details so quick” mused Maul momentarily forgetting who he was talking to.
“Soon you will know Mr Montresor, that chaps' cabin is down there on the left” said Lamb pointing around a corner.
He waited for a small group of Seekers to trot by before he looked around the corner. He saw two men standing by the wall, and one of them had made eye contact with Maul.
“Yeah nar, there’s two guards. Blending in time is done once we go in Lamb”
That was just what she wanted to hear. Now she knew what this shower of dimwits were all about, Lamb was eager to find Orwell and repay him for his flippancy and condescending attitude. The fact he had been planning to kill Lamb from the start was neither here nor there.
“Jolly good” said Lamb happily “You take the further one with your gun, I’ll stab the closest one as soon as I’m in range”
Lamb took hold of Mauls’ wrist and pulled him along behind her. She was a little worried he may hesitate if he was given an option. The two guards watched Seeker Lamb and Maul approach, and one held up a hand to stop them.
“All seekers should be going to the beacon chamber. You need to turn..”
Lamb kept coming, taking longer steps until she was close enough to close the distance with a lunge. She span, pushing her forearm against the guards arm that was reaching for a gun. Her other hand came in at head height holding Silas’ big knife in her fist which she buried in the man’s temple. Maul had already raised his gun using Lamb as cover. As soon as he saw the other guard, Maul raised the barrel he had kept pointed at the floor until this moment, and put three shots, centre-chest into the man. There was no flash of shields, and he fell like a sack.
Lamb had to put a foot on her targets head to get the knife back. Maul checked the other end of the shot corridor while Lamb started trying to open the cabins door; it didn’t open.
“Ww-w-hats the p-p-assword” came a muffled nervous voice from the other side of the door.
“That’s funny” answered Lamb “That’s exactly what we are here to ask you. Are you going to help us?”
“Un-un-under the all-seeing gaze of the eye the wi-wi-willingly blind shall be w-withered”
“Suit yourself” replied Lamb as she started cranking the manual over ride handle hidden under a discreet panel.
The door was locked with an extra device inside; Lamb could see the thing bridging the small gap between the door and frame. Sliding Silas’ big knife in the gap, Lamb pushed the point of the blade onto the thing, and hit the hit as hard as she could. There was a strained metal sound and Lambs palm hurt. Ignoring the pain, Lamb drew her hand back again and hit it even harder. There was a little more give but now the heel of Lambs’ hand had a rolling ach.
“Damn it” cursed Lamb missing the upper body strength she used to have while she rubbed here aching hand on her leg. “Maul, can you come and hit this good and hard for me please?”
Maul wondered over and assessed what Lamb was doing. She was holding a knife in a slither of a gap looking annoyed. Annoyed was Lambs’ base line, so no surprise there, but she had used his first name, she hardly ever did that. She seemed to be talking about the hilt of a knife, and she looked ready to move once Maul had done his part, so Maul reeled back and whacked the knife.
Something inside was forced off the door, and a cry of fear followed it clattering around the room. Lamb moved in as soon as she could fit through the gap. The man inside was Dorn, he was holding a gun that Lamb directed off the firing line as she toe-punted the man’s nut-sack. The gun, still in Lamb hand was tossed over to Maul, and she swung her knife arm cutting Dorn on the chest and shoulder.
Maul was about to remind Lamb they needed him alive when he saw Dorn was crying about being cut looking at the blood on his hands, and Lamb had simply walked deeper in to the compact room taking a small red-capped cylinder out from under her robe. Being a hacker, Maul had to check all the screens and holos’ he could see. They were on a lock screen, that’s when Maul remembered he was supposed to have turned off the fire suppressant system by now. He did so before Lamb had to remind him.
A whoosh of flame made both Maul and Dorn look towards Lamb. She was silhouetted against a background of burning wall as she calmly walked to the cabins tiny kitchen where she took the mini fire extinguisher from its holder. Dorn tried to crawl backwards away from Lambast as she approached him. She fell to her knees and rammed Silas’ knife through Dorns’ foot pining him to the floor.
She grabbed the man’s lips in her fist to stop the Dorns’ whining getting in the way of the important information she was about to impart.
“If you try to leave this room, I’ll kill you” said Lamb in a flat, calm voice. “If you give us a burned code, I will watch you burn to death in this room. If you answer my friends questions, he will let you live. Nod if you understand”
Dorn looked in to a pair of cold brown eyes free of sympathy, and the blaze behind the liner captain that was feeding on the small room, spreading closer and closer. He had stopped snivelling, now just he wanted to survive; he knew the Eye was not going to be any help at all. Dorn nodded.
Lamb pulled the knife out of the man’s foot, left the cabin and locked the door behind her.
“He should be compliant to your inquirers now Mr Montresor. I’ll watch your back”
Maul watched Lamb take up a position that would let her move quickly to anyone that came their way. He knew quite a few dangerous people, but the billionaire-Imperial Baroness-sociopath was one of the most interesting nutters Maul called friend.