My search was over almost before it began. Even aircraft carriers are surprisingly small when you ignore minor details like ‘stairs’ or ‘walls.’ I instead choose the shortest distance between two points — a straight line.

Obstacles like the concrete barriers and a chain link fence hadn’t slowed me down on the way in, and I was past the rain-slickened pier in a half dozen bounding steps. Several turrets, certainly new additions, had caught my eye, but they ignored my infiltration. It was possible that they didn’t see me as a threat, or that I was designated as an ally.

I didn’t buy that for a second. Sebbit would murder me given half an excuse. Most likely the dome was interfering with the technology. I knew firsthand that the Peacekeeper communications disks were not always reliable when exposed to heavy levels of eldritch energy.

I had run past a dozen turrets and two abandoned watchtowers before reaching the ramp leading up into the labyrinthine aircraft carrier. Rather than search for a way through the confusing corridors of the massive ship, I activated mana shield and charged through walls like the Juggernaut.

I had three targets, and immediately aimed for the closest.

I crashed through several thin bulkheads before I found myself face to face with two peacekeeper guards. They were standing on either side of a closed hatch, behind which was one the areas that had been sealed off from my sight.

My chances were one in three, and yet I was still amazed to find what I was looking for on the first attempt. I couldn’t be so lucky. Unless they had more than one prisoner?

The guards were even more surprised than I was. The one on the right stumbled back and smacked her head on the wall behind her. The other soldier was more alert but failed to use appropriate close-range tactics. She was already holding her rifle in a low-ready position, and her first instinct was to raise the gun towards me. The barrel never managed to raise more than a single centimeter.

I lunged forward, pushing Gun Girl’s barrel down with the palm of my right hand. I spun and rammed my left elbow into the sternum of her clumsier partner. At the same moment that my elbow landed in the middle of Clumsy’s chest, I reached up with my left hand and grabbed behind her shoulder. I pulled forward, dropping my shoulder, and tightening my core muscles as I did so. The clumsy guard was much taller, and probably stronger, than I was, but the element of surprise and my lower center of gravity proved to be enough to overcome her advantage.

Clumsy flew over my shoulder and collided with the wall on the other side of the narrow passageway. A new hole had appeared in the bulkhead, right next to the one I had made during my surprise entrance.

I didn’t have time to see where Clumsy had fallen. Gun Girl had placed both hands on the barrel of her rifle and was trying to pull away. My new arm proved to be stronger in that competition, but her greater weight was enough to pull me toward her. She focused on controlling her weapon rather than striking or grappling with me. This was despite having a collapsible baton on her belt and being at least a foot taller than I was.

I hoped she hadn’t been trained by Talith. If so, the old lizard was bound to skin and mount her on the wall as a warning to others.

This only solidified my original assessment of Gun Girl’s skills. She was probably well trained but had developed bad habits. Her stats and skills levels were no doubt stellar, probably better than my own, but I doubt she’d ever faced a truly life or death situation. She had what Troy would have called, “gym muscles.”

This realization probably saved her a lot of pain. I could have kicked out her kneecaps or nailed her limbs to the deck with spikes of eldritch energy; instead, I conjured a chain and used one end of it to bind her legs. I held the other side of the chain with my left hand, while the fingers of my right hand tightly grasped the barrel of Gun Girl’s rifle.

I flung my left hand backward with as much force as I could muster. The guard was at least twice my weight when she was fully armored, but she was still unbalanced in the fraction of a second after she had tried to wrest her gun away. Once her feet were pulled out from under her, it was all downhill.

She crashed to the ground with a crunching thud that echoed down the narrow corridor. As her back struck the floor she let out a loud gasp, and began sucking in deep, frantic breaths. She had abandoned the grip on her rifle and held both hands to her throat.

I looked down at her and realized that I was enjoying the violence way too much. Tears had filled her eyes, while I was standing over her with a terrifying grin on my face. My smile faded, and I focused on keeping a neutral expression.

It was much more difficult than I was comfortable with.

“Don’t move,” I placed a foot on her chest.

I tried not to use too much weight, as I had no idea what injuries she had sustained. She probably only had the wind knocked out of her, but I was hardly an expert on alien biology. If she was dead Sebbit was likely to be a lot more difficult to negotiate with.

I released the half of the chain I still held and let it wrap around her torso. It pinned her arms to her chest while her hands still grasped uselessly at her throat.

I kept my foot on her chest and her own rifle trained on her head as I turned to look for her partner.

Clumsy was lying face down on the floor. Her black armor looked almost grey under a thick cover of dust and metal debris. The slow rise and fall of her chest told me she was at least still breathing; which didn’t rule out that she might be faking.

I looked down at the Peacekeeper under my foot and waved the barrel of the gun slightly. It was unlikely she spoke English, so I was hoping she would understand the motion as the universal sign for, “move and I will fucking shoot you.” If she failed to understand I wasn’t entirely sure I could shoot her in cold blood.

I was also terrified that I could.

I took a step towards the possibly unconscious guard, but quickly realized that it didn’t matter if she was awake or not. I just needed her to stay still for a moment. I created another chain and she was quickly bound in the same manner as her friend. I have to say — if she was acting, she gave one hell of a performance.

“Now, you girls be good.” Clumsy showed no reaction while Gun Girl glared at me murderously. I’d never really given bondage much thought, but it seemed a handy skillset I should have developed earlier. Is that why my dad always encouraged me to join the Boy Scouts?

I turned to look at the steel hatch. It was little more than a grey, oval door made of thick metal. The bottom of the door was raised about four inches above the floor and a ring of metal clamps held it shut. A spinning handle had been built into its center.

I reached out and grasped the handle and spun it counter-clockwise. The hatch began to spin but quickly met resistance. I turned it the other direction but ran into the same problem. Of course, it was locked. Things were never that easy in real life.

I looked down at the two guards. I was already trying to figure out a way to communicate with them. They might have translators, and I could probably mime out what a key was. Even if they understood, I was sure they would try to play dumb and stall as much as possible.

I would just have to search them and hope I found something useful.

Before I could do so the entire world shifted. My vision blurred and the chains I had constructed loosened for a fraction of a second. The feeling quickly passed, and the guards gave no indication they had noticed.

“Shit, titty fucking Crist,” I yelled.

The dome had come down and Telvy would be flying back to the Yorktown at that very moment. I turned back towards the hatch and began gathering every ounce of energy I could into each of my legs. It was much like what I had done during my battle with the King Behemoth, but on a larger scale.

It was dangerous, incredibly so, but I had no more time.

I kicked forward and watched as the door was ripped from its hinges with the earsplitting sound of twisting metal followed by an explosive bang as it hit the far wall. Hopefully, no one was standing behind that.

“Well, that might have been a little too much.” I looked down at Gun Girl and smiled. “Sorry about the cleanup. Sebbit’s got the bill.”

She stared up at me with wide eyes, and I couldn’t help but blink in response when her inner eyelids closed. It was just unnatural looking, like the shutter of a camera spiraling closed in slow motion.

She used my momentary distraction to kick upwards with her bound feet. It was an impressive performance of speed, athleticism, and flexibility, but she couldn’t have known that I didn’t need my eyes to see the chain that still bound her limbs.

I leaned back and turned my body to the side, narrowly avoiding her attack. At the same time, I reached forward with my right hand and grasped the chain that was wound tightly around the back of her legs.

I spun around like an Olympic discus thrower. Gun Girl’s head bounced off both walls before I finally released her to land limply next to her partner.

I ignored her. If she attacked again, I’d just have to deal with it. I was past the point of doing things carefully. I’d have to do this the same way I’d done most of the best things in my life — loud, messy, and over too quickly.

I stepped through the empty cavity that had once been a door. The room behind it was much like my jail cell had been, but slightly larger and the floor was tiled in an unsightly shade of lime green. It was either the color, or the room’s inhabitant, but I found myself holding back a mouthful of bile.

“Gah. What the fuck is that?”

The creature looked like a person had been half swallowed by a blob of rancid, grey flesh. The stench was unbearable, and the way it moved made my skin crawl. It flowed across the room bonelessly, it’s body rippling and undulating as it slowly inched forward like a monstrous slug.

The human half of the creature was covered in ruptured pustules and scale-like scabs. It hung off the back of the boneless ooze of flesh and remained unmoving as it was dragged behind like a useless clump.

I raised the rifle and aimed it at the creature’s head. It seemed unlikely that this would kill it, but I had no idea what to do. As I looked down the barrel of my stolen gun a face came into my sights.

One eye was milky white, and the face was almost completely covered in scales and boils. Its scalp was mostly bare, save for large liver spots and a few sparse clumps of grey, brittle hair. It was a face that would have been unrecognizable if it hadn’t been for one green eye that gazed at me with unblinking focus. I could sense intelligence, and something familiar, behind that unblemished eye.

“What have they done to you?” I rushed forward and took the face in my hands. I ignored the danger around me even as the rancid flesh continued to circle me.

“Troy, can you hear me? Are you still in there?”

A single eye stared at me. His mouth moved but no sound came out. Half his face was split open, but the half of his lips that remained seemed to be silently mouthing the same two words. They repeated over and over, but his eye eventually closed, and his face fell deathly still. Whatever hell he had been trapped in, he had seen the hope of salvation when I had appeared. I wouldn’t let my friend down in his final moments, even if he had once betrayed me.

His last words were silent but clear in their intention.

“kill me.”

It was a request I fulfilled.