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Nalen Kress wasn’t hard to follow. Even with his headstart, the man was screaming as he ran, crashing into walls. Before long, Pirra found blood splattered on a corner he’d hit, and from then on it had been even simpler.
Still, she did not let her guard down. Already she’d had a gun disappear from her hands, and she couldn’t rule out that Kress couldn’t do something similar.
The image and words of the man he’d shot dead wouldn’t get out of her mind. Even now it felt like his words were still whispering in her ear.
I will be reborn.
Did he mean that when the bizarre cycle this station was stuck in reset, he’d be alive again?
She couldn’t possibly know, didn’t understand any of this or possibly predict it, but his words felt more ominous even than that.
He’d known things, and she felt vulnerable in her ignorance.
As she moved swiftly after Kress, she began to hear him running. His pace had fallen as exhaustion and his injuries caught up with him.
She could hear him around the bend. They were back near the airlocks, where the gunman had shot at her, where she’d seen the three men kill themselves.
She stepped out, aiming.
“Step away from the panel!” she said.
He was at the control panel for the airlock, and looked up at her, sweat running down his forehead. Panic and exhaustion competed with each other on his face, but he then smiled, a bitterwseet, hateful smile.
“You’re too late,” he said. “I didn’t need much time. This place will be destroyed, and I’ll be freed.”
“That’s not true. My compatriot is undoing what you’ve done. And when our ship comes, you can leave, too,” she told him. “If you’ll just stop and listen to me, there wouldn’t have been a need for any violence at all.”
“He’s a fool if he tries to stop it. But next time – next time it won’t matter. I’ve been practicing and getting better at this. Even if I come back, even if it starts over, next time I’ll succeed in destroying this place.”
He punched another button on the airlock.
She aimed above his head and fired. The shot hit the bulkhead above him, making sparks rain down as the bullet disintegrated.
“I said no more,” she said. “I will shoot you if I have to.”
“Go ahead,” he said. And then he hit one last button.
The airlock doors opened – on both sides.
Air howled out, and Pirra was pulled forward, crashing to the deck and sliding towards the door.
She looked up in time to see Nalen Kress close his eyes and let go, being taken out the airlock.
Emergency doors began to slam shut, sensing the vacuum.
And one of them was above her.
If she let go, she’d be trapped on the airless side, but if she held on she’d be cut in half.
Digging her fingers into the grating, she pulled with all her strength, curling her legs-
The door slammed shut, and she shivered, waiting for the pain.
But it didn’t come.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked.
Her feet were inches from the closed door, and even her wing drapes were mostly safe. A bottom edge of one was caught in the door, and she cursed, grabbing clumsily for the knife she’d taken earlier.
There was no choice but to cut off some of her feathers. As long as she did it carefully, it wouldn’t hurt.
It’d be ugly – hideous, even.
But better that than to be dead.
Standing up, she moved to a monitor and activated the external cameras.
Nalen Kress was a speck now, drifting out into the void.
Pirra couldn’t condone what he had done, but she hoped that the man had at least some measure of peace now.
Other Terrestrial 