Chapter 1

Planet Hephaestus. Orbit.

The ship was dying. Its systems failed one after another, devoured by a virus sent by the pursuers. Lights flickered and went out. Only blinking red emergency lights on ship's bulkheads broke up the darkness. Life support went next; quiet whispering of the AC systems became a terrifying silence. A moment later, a nerve-shredding howl of the emergency alarm blared all over the ship.

The pilots managed a miracle - they sent the dying ship into the planet's atmosphere. Now all they had to do was keep the ship from spinning uncontrollably, so people could leave the doomed vessel somewhat safely.

The hull shook violently, as if it were riding pell-mell over broken ground. Emergency partitions closed with loud bangs, and ship's compartments started filling with the most horrifying smell one can experience in space - that of burning plastic.

"Engine fire starboard!" second pilot reported.

Co-pilot just nodded silently, his attention on ship's controls.

"Eight-five!" he called out.

Replicant soldier RS-355085 snapped to attention, raising his helmet-enclosed head.

"Ensure passenger safety," the pilot ordered. "Put them in a pod and eject. Meet you planetside."

"What about you, sir?" The soldier fingered the clasps uncertainly, hesitant to leave the commander behind.

"We'll follow. Execute."

"Sir!"

The replicant undid the safety harness and left the bridge, holding onto the bulkhead for balance. Both pilots couldn't help but feel relieved. The artificial soldier, always calm and completely devoid of fear, caused a strange subconscious revulsion in humans.

The replicant himself, although struggling to maintain balance on the heaving deck, managed to reach the hatch leading to the living quarters.

"Blaze, get up." he addressed his companion, who was still strapped into a cradle. Replicants were considered property and therefore were only assigned serial numbers, but unbeknownst to their creators and handlers, they had their secret names, only used when alone or in secure comm channels.

"Sarge?" the second replicant lifted his head.

"We have orders to evacuate the passengers."

The sergeant caught a momentary pause in the ship's lurching and covered the distance between himself and the other soldier in one swift movement.

"My pleasure," Blaze laughed. "I am, after all, the favorite of all the ladies in this sector"

Sergeant grimaced, displeased; Blaze's penchant for running his mouth for no reason was annoying at times.

"These are the first ladies we ever met," he reminded cruelly. "Let's go pack them into a pod."

"What about the Major and the Captain?" Blaze unbuckled the harness and got up, holding onto the headrest.

"They are following." Sergeant slapped the door sensor lock.

Blaze followed, trying to adjust to the rocking and struggling not to slam into sergeant's back.

As soon as the hatch opened, the passengers turned to face the entrance; their faces were identical, as if they were replicants themselves. They seemed to be doing fine; strapped into cradles securely, the young women handled the turbulence without any injuries.

"Ma'am." Distorted by the helmet's speaker system, sergeant's voice was absolutely calm.

The replicant could have been watching a sunset, not standing on a deck of a crashing ship.

"Follow us, ma'am. We are leaving the ship."

Sergeant began to undo the safety harness on the passenger closest to him. A glance at her shoes made him frown. Civilian style stilettos would only be good for acquiring compound fractures at this point.

"My apologies, ma'am." He yanked the shoes off the girl's feet, breaking the flimsy straps in a single pull.

After repeating the same with the other passenger, the replicant returned to working on the harnesses. It was not an easy process - he had to balance on the lurching deck, hold onto the cradle railing with one hand and work with the other. That done, he waited for a moment of stillness in the turbulence, lifted the passenger from the cradle and held her close.

Blaze stood by for support, holding onto the bulkhead, and stared at the women curiously. He tried to find out what their role in the mission was, just to be reminded by the sergeant that they, simple grunts, don't have access to classified information.

"Blaze, take her." said sergeant's voice in his headset.

Chimbick shifted his hold to the passenger's arm. "Ma'am, RS-355090 will steady you."

"Come to me, ma'am!" Blaze exclaimed clownishly, offering his hand to the young woman.

"Shut up, Blaze." Sergeant replied for her.

The girl grasped Blaze's hand frantically and made a wobbly step, trying to maintain her balance on the heaving deck. Blaze carefully wrapped an arm around the girl's waist to keep her from falling and started walking towards the escape pod hatch.

Sergeant freed the other passenger and held her the same way.

"Don't be afraid, ma'am. I won't let you fall."

"Captain was right, " Blaze's voice proclaimed in the headset. "We should have taken a Consortium ship."

Sergeant blocked the vocoder so that no sound escaped the helmet and replied: "Then we would have been detected on Tiamat."

"And it's so much better now?" Blaze chuckled.

The reply was the familiar "Shut up, Blaze."

Sergeant cut the vocoder and concentrated on transporting his charge to the pod. The hatch presented a bit of a conundrum - a five foot tall round opening with a tall coaming could endanger the passengers as they came through. Sergeant had to stand with his back against the wall and hold both women while Blaze dove into the hatch and extended a helping hand. Loading completed, the replicants buckled both passengers into cradles, sat down themselves and then Blaze hit the launch button.

Pyrobolts fired with a sharp crack, a moment of acceleration and the pod stabilized, heading for the planet. Thrusters activated to slow down the descent. The second pod streaked by and the replicants let out a sigh of relief - the operatives were safe.

In confirmation, sergeant's comm crackled to life.

"Eight-five, how are the passengers?" the major asked.

"Condition normal, sir." the replicant answered after a brief glance at the pale women. "Slightly nervous."

"Alright. Meet you on the surface."

Left with nothing else to do, sergeant studied the mysterious passengers furtively.

The only time replicants saw women was in educational films and on missions, so they were ignorant of common standards of human beauty. But he thought the young women were pretty - slender, fit, skin tanned to a golden hue. The replicant was especially amazed by their long blond hair, reaching below the waist. That and fingernails covered in decorative patterns. They were so long it would be impossible to clench a fist for a blow; sergeant failed to imagine a task that would require such a modification. Bright and highly impractical clothing was completely unlike the drab uniforms he was used to. The passengers were dressed identically, just like the replicants, and it made their similarity even more obvious.

Sergeant began to think that they may be a part of some secret detachment. Perhaps a custom replicant model for special missions? But the fear in their eyes cast doubt on this hypothesis. Maybe they were allowed to retain basic emotional responses for better integration with the civilians...

Had the major felt the need to explain the status and importance of the passengers they took onboard on Tiamat, this guessing game would have been unnecessary. But the major decided that no additional information was required to complete the mission.

Blaze's snickering interrupted this train of thought.

"Hey Sarge. Don't tell me you didn't enjoy that."

"Enjoy what?" Sergeant was genuinely confused.

"Hugging a girl."Blaze explained.

Sergeant opened his mouth to tell the squaddie off, but then closed it and contemplated the question. Did he really enjoy that? To his annoyance, he realized that he didn't pay any attention to the sensation, concentrating too hard on their mission to evacuate the passengers from the doomed ship.

"Shut up, Blaze." he grunted in lieu of an answer.

Blaze snorted, but shut up. There was no need for the sergeant to patch into Blaze's helmet's tac block to know that his brother was staring at the women. But since the replicants had no immediate orders at this point, he decided not to interfere and instead stared out of the viewport.