Broken Boundaries

05 - Absence, Hearts

Thanks to the good care of the girls, Alain recovered quickly and the only effects left of his ordeal were stiff muscles and scars on his shoulder from where the bullet had entered and exited. He stayed with them in their pod until he was fully healed, and felt some regret when he returned to his own but he still had a job to do.

'Did you do anything with the guys we trapped?' he had asked and the girls shook their heads. 'I'll go and take care of that first then.'

'We'll help.' said Asitha.

Alain gave her a gentle smile. 'No need, I can handle this on my own. You have dealt with enough already so I won't burden you with this.' Asitha opened her mouth but Alain stopped her before she could speak. 'Don't worry.'

She nodded a little and Alain set out for his pod and the Walkurea.

Even though there was no need, he still drew his gun before he opened the door to the secure room in the warship. The two suits hung motionlessly in the vacuum. With a line attached to each suit, Alain pulled them along to an exit and pushed them into space.

The view he got at the next group they had trapped wasn't as serene as the first. Blood drifted through the corridor and stained the walls and the bullet-riddled suits. Alain suspected the men went over the edge when their air supply went out and turned on each other. Careful not to touch the floating blood, he used the line again and set the suits adrift into space.

Although he hadn't mentioned it, he went to the Lady Wind and assessed the situation. He almost found satisfaction in the shredded faces of the men he found at the airlock and the one in a corridor towards the engine controls. He shut down his mind before it imagined the carnage and what the men must have gone through. Although there were plenty of practical reasons to keep the ship and most of its contents, he had no desire to keep mementos of those murderers. Restoring drive control was a simple task after he turned off the probing program running through the radio connection, and set an automated course towards the sun.

He went back to his pod, executed the command remotely, and watched the ship's thrusters firing and manoeuvring the ship towards its final destination.

The girls come over later after their work shift and Asitha gestured at where Lady Wind used to be. 'Did you?'

He nodded. 'I got rid of it.'

She averted her eyes as tucked in her tail and flattened her ears. 'You saw?'

'Yeah.'

Tiness fiddled with her fingers but Alain took their hands in his. 'How about some human junk food? It goes well with drinking.'

Asitha chuckled once. 'Yeah, sounds good.'

Alain went to work with Asitha while Tiness set up the rest and went looking for something to watch, avoiding anything with violence this time. The comedy series and the joy of eating something bad but so very tasty helped relieve the stress and soon they were in stitches when the captain of an explorer vessel had another public row on the bridge with her ex-husband and first officer. Asitha giggled at a scene where she rewarded him by petting him like a dog. She nudged Tiness. 'That reminds me of that time when Alain pet your head.'

Tiness's eyes went wide and she blushed while Alain blushed as he glanced at her..'It was more or less an automatic reaction.' he said.

'It helped though.' chuckled Asitha. 'I bet she'd be skipping around if circumstances were better.'

Tiness hit her playfully on her arm. 'I'll bet you'd get jealous and demand the same treatment!'

'Hey, I'd at least demand a treat for letting him pet me!' said Asitha and smirked.