Not Alone

[Mithra]

I am a demon, I am an angel. I bring death to these two, not a swift one either. I take the whip from the fat one and garrote him with it. He struggles in vain, tugging, pulling at the implement of his doom. He gasps his last as his tongue protrudes and eyes bulge. Stupid human. The thin one I hit with a hammer I find. He goes down, a nasty lump forms on his forehead, the least of his worries. I drag him to the airlock, remove the controls from the inside, and shut him in it. I take the remote and hold it up to the porthole. He wakes. He puts a hand to his head, stops. He looks around him. He sees me, smiling in that same horrible way. He opens his mouth to plead, but I let that silver tongue be forever still. I press the button that will slowly, ever so slowly, let the air out of the chamber.

Katherine went to the bridge, skirting the body of the quartermaster as she did so. The entire ship stank of their contamination. She found the overrides and sealed the rest of the crew in their chambers, in the engine room, wherever they were. She vented the cargo bay, bodies of slaves flying out into space like so much confetti. Then she released halon gas into the crew areas. Oxygen, bound by the fire-retardant molecules, ceased being conducive to life. One by one, the crew suffocated. She smiled grimly, checked the scanners. Nothing. Wait. There is something, but it is faint. She starts: They return. She and they run together in that constant stream of all. A thousand thousand points of light flash in the edges of forever, each an entity of the shared consciousness, glowing brightly. They glisten and fade, some flashing into existence, others vanishing, reappearing, as a form is lost and reborn. It is eternity of the mind.

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