Denz paced hesitantly back and forth, attired in thermasilk boxer shorts, long black socks, and a synthetic cotton white V-neck t-shirt, within the luxurious confines of his living quarters. The object of his intense stare, as he bent in close then stood back briefly, was his green formal service coat. For the past five minutes, the perfectionist commander was sure his new station command badge was off center. Or was it? The silver badge gleamed even in the faded lights of his quarters.
“I'm ready.” General Denz Kai smirked aloud, as if in response to the shining piece of decoration, the symbol of his as-of-today promotion to head of military operations aboard Space Station Libra.
But it wasn't just that. He was also being promoted, rank wise, today as a testament to his change in position. He was no longer a Brigadier General. He was now a Major General. Though the rank certainly meant a lot to those serving under Kai's command, it meant little to him: just a substantial bump in pay. He grinned as he adorned the rest of his ensemble. It was the position that mattered, not the extra star.
Apparently, his superior on Libra, Captain Malriiko Arabar, held confidence that his excellence as the commander of military engineering and weapons development would follow him as the Space Station Libra Military Commander. He'd only met her a handful of times over the last three months in his previous command position. Thankfully, the drow captain was appointed to her position for her leadership, professionalism, and passion for her space station and its inhabitants. He could take direct orders from her with total confidence.
Denz finally finished dressing, adjusting his tie and eye patch in his living room holomirror—his appearance had to be pristine for his ceremony—as he read today's e-mails displayed in the right corner of the multi-purpose appliance. How could he demand perfection from his subordinates if he did not present himself perfectly? With one last look at his ribbons, General Kai straightened the beret atop his head before striding confidently out his quarters. His computer knew to turn off all lights and electronics as he departed. He hoped the change of command and promotion ceremony wasn't scheduled to run into the afternoon.
The overhead lights in the corridor of deck 2 brightened as the General made his way to a “crew only” elevator. The elevator dinged open and, as usual, his aide, Major Brian Wardz was waiting for Kai. Major Wardz was adorned in matching dress greens and checked his wrist-clock reflexively, probably verifying some time line or objective for the General's “consideration”.
“Good morning, sir.”
Denz nodded, “Major Wardz” and looked the younger man's uniform up and down.
Major Wardz was a prior enlisted whom had earned his commission as an officer eight years ago. He met and even exceeded General Kai's expectations as his personal aide for over two years. Though he seemed unusually tense this morning.
Kai shot his subordinate a piercing, one-eyed glance.
“The Captain and prior Libra Commander and other CO's (Commanding Officers) are meeting with you 30 minutes prior to the ceremony,” he replied defensively.
Denz scowled as if to say, “I know”.
Something was strange about Major Wardz this morning. Kai could sense the awkwardness in his voice.
What was it? It's something about the elevator. . . the General thought to himself as he searched his associate's mind telepathically.
He looked down to see that they were headed down to deck 12, instead of deck 4. Then the suspicious General nearly leaped out of his boots as he turned to look down the barrel of a tiny blaster.
“So you did disable the camera in here,” Denz concluded aloud, a cocky grin—hardly situationally appropriate—stretched across his otherwise grim features, before the stun blast slammed him against the elevator wall behind him, hard.
Unconsciousness nearly took him as his traitorous associate calmly slid the blaster in a coat pocket, as if the task were like brushing his immaculate teeth.
General Denz Kai's mind fumed as it tried to make his body respond, and strangle the life from the little bastard! For Kai was not a totally ordinary human. Since he could remember, he had displayed telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Though he was certainly not even close to a powerful mage, Kai proved able to manipulate others' thoughts and emotions through his own concentrated willpower.
So, even before the blast struck Kai, he had deduced that the weapon was meant to momentarily leave him incapacitated, and he had prepared himself for it, at least as much as he could. The way stun weapons worked on most humanoids was that they, basically, scattered brain cells. More specifically, they broke repairable bonds between neurons in the motor functions portion of the brain. And General Kai possessed a unique and unexpected level of control over his own mind.
As he was quickly dragged from the elevator by his “aide” somewhere on deck 12, Denz concentrated on re-linking the millions of cellular ties that he failed to hold in place when he was stunned. One question kept repeating itself in the hazy recesses of Kai's mind: How has the little shit been keeping this little plan of his from me?
The still body of Denz was then pulled into some sort of stock room. There, two other humans dressed in mechanic uniforms awaited his slightly comatose arrival. All three of them hoisted the General onto a hovering cart amidst ship parts. A white polyplastic sheet was thrown over him and within moments the Commander of Libra was scooted along like a helpless turd. He was pissed! And sorely wanted to kill all three of them.
Denz experimented with his motor functions under the cover of the polyplastic. He twitched his hands and wiggled toes as he was hovered at an upward angle into the cargo area of a tiny shuttle. He watched telepathically through his captor's eyes as the hover trolly he was laid on was lowered and auto-bolted to the spacecraft floor. He could hear, through his own ears, as the lift-ramp was closed behind him. The three quickly went to work on prepping the shuttle for launch.
“Get me the new access codes for TL-10 Haviah,” said one of the three as he threw a few switches above the pilot's seat.
Haviah? So Wardz is working for Aedolis. Denz thought, This must have to do with their threat on Libra two weeks ago, when they demanded Libra surrender. Aedolis must have figured it would be more wise to capture me for interrogation before attacking Libra.
Bastards.
He could hear the APU (auxiliary power unit) fire up aboard the little spacecraft, and could feel the vibrations throughout the ship on his skin. His body was almost totally functional now. One of the three spies—apparently the pilot of the shuttle—was coordinating the soonest launch out of Space Station Libra over headset.
Luckily, just moments after Kai was confident he could act if necessary, Wardz ordered the General be physically restrained. He kept his eye shut as the sheet was pulled off his body. He reached out with his mind and sensed all three aboard the shuttle carried blasters. And the one now attempting to turn his “unconscious” body had a blaster strapped to his right hip. He grinned and opened his eye.
The spy yelped and jumped back as if he'd just seen someone rise from the grave, dropping a pair of electrocuffs. The General, being no stranger to close combat, used the opportunity of surprise to his full advantadge, and slammed his fist into the spy's throat, pulled the blaster from his enemy's hip, and used the gasping fool as a human shield. The pilot reacted quickly, spinning the swivel chair 180 degrees to face Denz with blaster in-hand. But he hesitated, not wanting to blast his ally held between him and the General.
Denz's bolts ripped through the air, heating the cabin slightly as they traveled straight through the pilot's chest. Within two seconds, he was a bloody, partially cauterized mess stuck to the seat. His lifeless body leaned back in the chair and his head plopped back, then to one side. Denz held his captive in a choke hold from behind so tight he quickly gave up struggling, and just stood gasping for the tiny bits of air the General allowed him. After all, if he fell unconscious due to hypoxia who would be his meat shield?
“I know you're in here, Major Wardz,” Kai said calmly as he sensed his former aide just around a nearby corner, “Throw your blaster down in front of you and get your ass out here. Or you know what—“
Wardz didn't hesitate. He came around the corner blasting, but Denz was ready. He deftly dropped to a knee and released his human shield simultaneously, a mere millisecond before Wardz leaped around the corner with legs spread wide in a solid stance, sizzling flashes into his “comrade”. As his meat shield flew backwards right over the crouched General, Kai pulled the trigger five—six—seven—eight times.
By now the room stank so bad of burnt flesh Denz cringed. And briefly regretted being forced to kill all three of them, briefly. Now there wasn't much left to question. Charred bodies really didn't help anyone here on Libra. Maybe if the Station had close ties with Thanatos Inc. some amount of information could be extracted from their slowly rotting brains. Denz Kai felt a shiver up his spine at the thought, but shrugged it away and felt good about blowing away his spy of an assistant. He wondered how long the wretch was had been scheming this, and couldn't help but be completely perplexed about how the late Major Wardz had kept his thoughts from his superior's probing intellect.
He sighed in annoyance as he realized he didn't have a sharp, time keeping assistant any longer.
And speaking of time, how long until his ceremony started?
He might as well attend the thing as if nothing really happened. After all, this sort of incident: the Military Commander of Libra blowing away three assholes in docking station 12, needed to be kept as secret as possible. Denz smirked at the irony of speaking about professionalism before thousands of Libran soldiers literally minutes after splattering three “assholes” all over the walls of some shuttle he'd never seen before!
He definitely needed to collect himself. His face and underarms were damp, and he now realized he was breathing so heavily he was practically wheezing. Damn I'm getting old.
Denz walked over to Wardz's body and shook his head, “You were always a pain in the neck,” he lied to the corpse as he bent down to check Wardz's wrist-clock.
He still had ten minutes until he was even to meet the Captain before his speech. Damn he was efficient! What else would a two-star General be? he reflected egotistically.
After he collected himself, General Kai realized he was still holding the blaster, and tossed it to the shuttle floor. It clanked hollowly as Denz looked his own dress uniform up and down and straightened his beret. Not a spot on his uniform.
Lucky.
The General showed himself off the spacecraft and ordered a young private, of whom was ironically on security detail on deck 12—and hadn't heard any of the blaster fire—to alert OSI (Office of Special Investigations) to deal discreetly with the contents of the shuttle. And he told the youngster to tell the OSI people not to disturb him with questions until after his change of command ceremony. The kid gave an awkward salute and Kai returned it confidently, and he was gone.
He decided to take a different elevator to deck 4. And made his way to the mess hall, the location of the change of command ceremony. He was probably right on time to meet Captain Arabar and the others. He smirked and scoured the mess hall with his eye, for every which way darted cooks, event planners, and everyone else and their mother, it seemed. All of them careful to give the newly appointed General his space: about twelve arms lengths.
If only his aide didn't have his head half blown off maybe Denz could find who he needed when he needed!
