Bella Starr

I approach Electra Draco with my cheeks blistering hot. My molten stare drifts over to Halo who's unconscious on the floor of the bridge. The heat behind my eyes flashes cold, extinguished by a stab to my heart and tears blurring my vision. I'm torn between what to do first: check on my dying friend or bring Draco into submission? In my mind, it's a forgone conclusion that the corporate head is going to do what I tell her to do. I'll make sure of that, but that leaves Halo suspended between life and death. I know I have to help him first.

With a leery eye tracing Draco's figure—the woman's back leaning against the communication console—I kneel beside Halo and check for a pulse. The last time I felt of his neck, his heart was thumping fast, but now it's slow and weak. I'm not a doctor, but I know what that means...at least the possibilities of it.

I lift Halo high enough to unbuckle his belt and remove it. I'm not sure if it'll work in his condition, but next, I cut off a few inches of cloth from the bottom of my tank top and apply it to the wound. Wrapping the belt around him higher up on his lower back, I tighten it to hold the scrap of material in place. I hope the makeshift dressing will slow the bleeding.

I set my attention on Draco. "Turn around and sit down," I say. "I need you to use your eye to unlock the comm system...now."

Draco glares at me. "Why should I?"

"Why wouldn't you? Do you want to die like the rest of the people on this ship?"

"I have no plans to do any such thing, Ms. Starr. You have to understand that word of this inconceivable and unfortunate circumstance can not and will not get out. Space Venture will be doomed and I can not allow that, I've worked too hard to turn this corporation around."

"You and your corporation are already done for." I raise the katana and jab it toward Draco. "There's nothing you can do to stop this from getting out. People are going to know. The Federation will know."

Draco crosses her arms and shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know, I can be pretty resourceful. I'll find a way to sweep this under the rug. I can have a clean up crew out here in weeks. Maybe send the ship on a one way trip to Jupiter, let it get ripped apart in that hurricane red spot that's so famous."

"You're not making sense." I wag my head. "Do you think you can get away with something like that?"

"I could if pirates took control of the ship." Draco nods toward a blinking light on the communication console. "See that?"

I peek at the touchscreen panel. "What does that mean?"

"It's a beacon sent by the captain on a specific emergency channel. There are all sorts of things that could go wrong on a ship. I mean, you could have engine failure, or navigation trouble, or you could have piracy."

"There are no pirates on the Celestial Sea," I reply.

"My guess, the captain realized what was taking place. With everyone succumbing to the virus, he activated the only failsafe option he had time for...in the middle of running for his life." Draco smiles like she won an argument in a courtroom. "The beacon on this channel is only used in the event of piracy. I assume the Federation has already dispatched a special forces military unit to find the ship and take back control of it."

"So, the calvary is on the way. How do you expect to keep them from discovering what's really taking place here?"

Draco unfolds her arms and places her palm on the console. "Unless the Federation has top secret propulsion technology that no one in the solar system knows about, it'll take them at least three weeks to get here, maybe longer. In the meantime, I'll find a way to reach out to Space Venture HQ on a back channel that no one's monitoring and send a crew to dispose of the ship before they get here. Our ships are faster than the Federation's."

A heatwave crashes over me and my next words fly out of my mouth. "You'll contact the Federation now, and you'll warn them about the outbreak."

"I certainly will not." Draco chuckles like I'm a misbehaving child. "You need to learn your place, little girl."

I've heard her call me and my friends that for the last time. I lunge across the bridge, spanning the remaining distance between us, and stab the tip of the katana into the top of Draco's foot. The woman wails from the pain. She sinks to the floor clutching her foot in agony.

As I rip the blade from the woman's foot, Draco's cries shriek around the room, clawing its way up the walls.

"If you don't open the comms and start talking," I say, "I'll start cutting off body parts."

Draco, whimpering, finally yields to my demands. Painstakingly, she climbs up from the floor and sits in the chair. "Please stop," she says. "You don't have to do this." She bends over, her head almost touching her knees as she holds her wounded foot, blood seeping between her fingers.

When Draco doesn't make any effort to start up the comm system, I add, "You're stalling. I can see right through you."

"You stabbed my foot with that contaminated sword, now I'll probably turn into one of those zombie things."

I hold my palm up, revealing a painful gash running across it. "Just returning the favor." I spin the chair to the side and plunge the blade into the top of Draco's other foot.

Her cry pierces my ears. "Stop...stop...please," she says. "I'll do it. I'll do it."

Apparently convinced that I'll do anything to get what I want, Draco lowers her face over the touchscreen, presses a tab on the side panel, and allows the retinal scanner to beam over her right eye. Finally...I think I've forced this tyrant into submission, that is until I see a flash of tainted sliver streaking toward my face. In all the confusion, during all my angry demands, I forgot about setting Cygnus Lo's knife on the communication console.

A mistake I hope I live to regret.