SciFi Shorts Collections

The Suit-2

Then Samuel’s other arm shot forward. His hand grabbed the knife in the injured man’s shoulder, pulled it out then rammed it repeatedly into the back of the pirate. The wounds were carefully judged to ensure they would still leave him alive. Then the Suit grabbed the man by the neck and threw him across the cabin. He slammed into the wall before slipping to the floor unconscious.

Samuel’s hand slapped down on the injured man’s shoulder.

“Quick! Get over here and put pressure on this!” Samuel yelled at the three women.

Two of them looked ready to faint or be sick, as did the other male prisoner standing against the wall, but the third woman jumped forwards and took over applying pressure.

“I’m a doctor!” she said. “I’ve got this. You deal with the last pirate.”

Samuel nodded, or the Suit nodded his head to be precise. The Suit moved him across the floor, grabbed the pirate who was now groaning and starting to come round, and dragged him up the steps. With the Suit’s help he could have heaved the injured pirate up with one hand, but he didn’t want to show too many signs of that strength to his fellow passengers. Throwing the pirate against the wall had been a step too far, but Samuel was sure that no one would think it was more than a burst of adrenaline.

The Suit dragged the pirate up onto the deck then looked around, making sure they were alone. Then the Suit spoke, using its own voice, but keeping it very quiet. Only Samuel and the pirate could hear what was said.

“It’s a lovely quiet night,” it said to the pirate. “Don’t you think a swim would be a nice way to cool down after your exertions?”

The Suit used its full strength, throwing the pirate far out into the water. Samuel saw him struggling for a few moments but the cold, the knife injuries and the shattered wrist, all conspired to drag him down in a few moments. Possibly not such a great night for a swim.

Ten minutes later Samuel stood on the deck of the boat. The doctor had patched up the injured passenger, and pumped him full of painkillers. The bodies of the other pirates had been dragged up to the deck and were laid against the bow with a tarpaulin covering them.

Now that the initial shock was wearing off, two of the women were hanging off of Samuel’s every word, treating him like a hero, though the doctor was distracted by what she’d had to do. Even the remaining man was no longer giving him nasty glances.

All in all, Samuel was greatly enjoying the attention. In fact, he was pretty certain the attention one of the women had in mind for him was going to be very enjoyable.

Just at that moment a particularly large wave rocked the boat. Samuel stumbled slightly, as did some of the others, but they managed to regain their balance quickly. Samuel expected to do the same, but instead his legs seemed to betray him. He stumbled more than he would have expected, slipped, fell against the rail at the back of the boat… and much to his surprise managed to tumble straight over.

He heard the shouts and yells of the other passengers and then he was in the water. For a moment he expected a repeat of the shocking cold he’d felt the first time he’d ended up there, but that didn’t come. The Suit was still active and protecting him against the cold. He glanced up at the back of the boat and saw several faces peering down at him, people calling him.

Before he could reply he slipped below the waves. No matter how hard he thrashed he couldn’t stop himself sinking quickly. The surface disappeared as the darkness of the night time sea closed above him.

Not that he was in any danger, of course, the Suit was keeping him supplied with oxygen and shielded from the water. The only danger was that he was going to miss out on the hero’s rewards he’d been expecting.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked the Suit.

“I’m saving you from yourself.”

“What do you mean, saving me from myself? There was nothing to save me from. I knew exactly what I was doing, and planned to do it very well thank you.”

“Well, okay… I was saving myself from having to put up with your plan! Besides, you weren’t really the hero. I was! I was the one who dragged you out of the water. I was the one who killed the pirates. I was one who saved everybody. So, seeing as I couldn’t get any recognition for my efforts, why should you get all the rewards?”

“Are we just going to sink to the bottom of the sea and sit there?” asked Samuel huffily.

“No. The starship is on its way already. We’re just going to drift for a little while, then head straight for it.”

“Fine! Then at least I can get out of you, and away from your personality issues!”

“You’re hardly a barrel of fun yourself! And besides, you’re welcome to get out of me anytime you want. Let’s see how long you survive at the bottom of a freezing sea without my help!”

“Don’t tempt me. Drowning wasn’t so bad, it was certainly better than listening to you drone on!”

“Really? Well let me tell you…”

They bickered as they drifted, and drifted as they bickered. And once they were able to head for the starship they still bickered.

The ship lifted off from the surface of the sea, hardly causing a ripple and completely invisible to all the scanning equipment the planet’s natives could wield. It watched in amusement as the Suit peeled itself off of Samuel and stomped to one end of the ship, while Samuel stumbled his way to the other end. The ship wasn"t particularly large. Just large enough for one person and the Suit. Normally. Not large enough today, apparently.

The ship quietly reached out for information from the Suit, gaining what it needed without it even sensing the ship’s touch. Then it repeated the same process for Samuel, pulling information from his inserts. Once the ship had reviewed both sets of information it had to force itself not to chuckle out loud at what it found.

The infringements of the relevant laws were a concern, of course, but the ship wasn"t really bothered. Such minor issues could be ignored. Even the killing of several indigenous lifeforms. After all, they had hardly been beacons of hope for their species.

For a moment the ship considered letting both Samuel and the Suit know it had extracted full details of what had what had taken place, but it decided not to. Though the ship smiled to itself as it realised the invasion of their minds was the one thing which might bring the two together again.

Instead it decided to allow the huffy suit and the grumpy human as much space as it could as they sorted their differences out. Past experience suggested they would get past the argument. They had been working together for more than three years. They were an effective team and could tolerate each other with only low level antagonism, most of the time.

The strange thing was that when any moves were made to split them up, both found any number of reasons to resist. Some had suggested that meant their dislike of each other wasn’t real. The ship had known them both long enough now to know it was definitely real, yet they somehow still managed to work together as a close team.

Now Samuel was pointedly examining all recent communications, while trying to ignore the Suit, which was a dozen metres away. In its turn the Suit was running dozens of self diagnostic tests, most of which would restrict its sensors… which made it harder for the Suit to notice Samuel was even there.

Three more days. They had three more days before their holiday ended. If they didn’t tear holes in themselves before then. The ship made an executive decision.

“Incoming alert, code black!” it lied. “Holiday is cancelled. We have a job…”

The End

The End