LOST REVENGE Read online

  “That’s fine. Now depressurize the entire ship.”

  “Such order request access to the mainframe. Please provide access code.”

  “LILY12132030.”

  “Code confirmed. Access granted. Depressurizing the entire ship requires permission from flight control at Luna station. Would you like to send such request?”

  “Yes.”

  “Hold on.”

  Fuck! Back and forth is about 50 minutes. They will think I am crazy.

  Yea, whatever. I let out a long sigh.

  “Transmission can’t be sent. Communication system failure.”

  “What?”

  I guess Jim didn’t fix it. Of course, he didn’t.

  Flight control wouldn’t grant such request anyway.

  “Initiate emergency protocol 1132. Request override.” Protocol 1132 can only be activated when all communication systems failed. If any of them still works, Zeus will not carry out the protocol.

  “All communication systems failed. Initiate emergency protocol 1132.” This involves transferring higher level commands to lower level.

  “Full access granted.”

  “Depressurize the entire ship!”

  “Please be aware life support system and artificial gravity system will fail in depressurization. Would you like to continue?” Here I don’t really worry about temperature, because all these equipment are heat generators. It will be cold here, but not freezing cold. What worries me most is oxygen.

  “Yes.”

  “Opening vent one to six. Depressurization will complete in two minutes.”

  A window pops out showing me the pressure in the ship.

  “Hiss.” Air is being sucked out.

  “Come on. Come on. Faster!” I shout pounding the table.

  The pressure is dropping quickly.

  “Die, you mother fuckers!”

  “Depressurization complete. Pressure stable at 0.00000000000000001 Torr.”

  Finally.

  “Lily, I made it. I got them.” I shout out loud.

  You didn’t die in vain. You led me here. You pointed out the direction for me. Now you can rest in peace. I love you. I love you forever.

  The pleasure of revenge lasts several minutes and the head pain reminds me of my current situation. I can’t just stay here. I need to fix the antennae and get in touch with flight control. The aliens are dead and cold by now. I need to get back to work.

  “Pressurize the entire ship.”

  “Closing vent one to six. Pressurization will complete in two minutes.”

  “Hiss.”

  “Pressure stable at 760 torr. Central life support systems activated. Artificial gravity system failed.”

  Artificial gravity failed. How come? I guess something was sucked out. Well, I will deal with it later after I fix the antennae.

  “Unseal the mainframe compartment.”

  “Clank, clank, clank.”

  “Hiss.”

  “The mainframe compartment unsealed.”

  I slowly fly to the door and push the inside door open. Flying through the short corridor, I grab the handle on the outside door and push it open.

  The outside corridor is quiet and empty.

  I wait several seconds and then fly out.

  Lights flicker and suddenly my body is so heavy.

  Gravity is back.

  I plummet on the floor, landing on my chest.

  “Crack.” Something hit on my lower back.

  “Ah, ah…” I cry out of pain, cold sweat oozing out of every pore, my body shaking out of control.

  My spine is broken. I can’t even feel my leg. I turn my head and see a tall oxygen cylinder lying across my lower back. At the same time, fast and heavy steps are getting closer and closer.

  The bomb in my hat.

  Yes. The bomb.

  My left hand is reaching for the watch on my right wrist. Just at this moment, a spacesuit comes into my view and a foot crashes my left hand into a pancake.

  “Ah, ah.” I scream.

  “Look, what we got here.” That’s Ausak’s voice.

  I raise my head. That is Asuak in spacesuit, followed by his crew in spacesuits.

  More steps rush to me. They lift me up and carry me to the medical bay. There they set me on a chair and fasten me tight.

  It’s all over.

  It’s all over.

  I can’t help but cry, tears drowning my eyes, desperation and fear filling in every corner of my heart. There is nothing I can do. I know this is the end.

  They take off spacesuits and go back to their alien form. One alien comes to me, yanks off my hat and fixes my head with two restraints. Now I can’t even move my head.

  While Asuak is preparing something near another table, another alien comes to me and says, “I know what you are thinking. Why we have to fake Lily’s body? You see she critically injured one of our crew and we have to keep him on life support in medical bay. We make him look just like Lily, so that you wouldn’t find out your Lily is dead. We thought it was perfect. If anyone else plays Lily, you would find it out by just talking with her. That brings up my question. How did you find out it is not Lily?”

  Asuak comes back and says, “Step away. You two can talk later. I guess now you have reached the point where your head is so hurt that you can’t even think. Am I right?”

  I stare at him without a word.

  “Listen. You can tell me the code or I take it out of your brain. That will hurt a lot.”

  “You can’t take it out of my brain.” I say confidently.

  “We planted a bug into your head when you were in coma, because we are concerned that you wouldn’t tell us the access code if you were awake. The bug is extracting all the information there. I know what you ate tasted like shit, because we added the forage for the bug. The problem is we have to wait a certain amount of time to harvest the bug and we planned to keep you under during that period of time. But Lily, your wife, woke you up. We are supposed to wait 7 days, but it seems the bug is now ready.”

  “Fuck you!”

  “This is not our way of doing things, but your species leave me no other choices.” Asuak says while pushing the chair under the surgical lights.

  At the corner of my right eye, I see my hat. It is right in front of the oxygen cylinder cabinet. The cabinet door is open and there are three cylinders. It used to have four.

  Asuak moves a pen like thing to my left eye.

  “This is going to hurt.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.”

  “You change your mind?”

  “Yes.”

  “OK, I am listening.”

  “The access code is stored in my watch. My right wrist.”

  Asuak removes the watch from my right wrist and says, “After I get the code, I will kill the bug instead of taking it out. Now tell me.”

  “Press the top button one time and the middle button two times. Then it will show you the code.”

  “Top one time and middle two times.” Asuak says while pressing them.

  “Bang!” A small explosion lights up the medical bay, followed by a slew of big ones.

  The compartment depressurizes in a less than a second. I don’t hold my breath. I know Lily is waiting for me. I know. I know.